Debt Consolidation

Consolidation involves paying off several smaller loans or credit cards with the proceeds of a new larger loan. To qualify for a debt consolidation loan you need collateral, usually your home.

Here you trade unsecured debt, which is bad enough, for secured debt putting your home at risk if you don’t repay the new loan. This is a risk that will last for the full term of the new loan, probably the next 15 to 30 years. If you default on the loan you could lose your home in foreclosure.

In theory the new payment is less than the sum of the old payments because its interest rate is lower. The debt consolidation lender can afford to charge lower interest on your new loan since it is secured, while your unsecured credit cards required a higher interest rate to compensate for the higher risk.

Consolidation loans do not reduce your debt or improve your situation. They improve your creditors’ situation, putting them in the stronger position of having a secured loan instead of an unsecured loan. Worse yet, studies have shown that those who pay off credit cards with consolidation loans often are deeper in debt soon, when they have again maxed out their credit cards.

Simply put, it does not work because you cannot borrow your way out of debt.

Debt Consolidation
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