4 Fatal Mistakes to Avoid When Applying for Debt Consolidation Loans

Setting Unrealistic Goals
Before you set out to apply for a debt consolidation loan, consider the goals you're trying to meet and think realistically when you're doing so. How much do you make every month? How much do you spend? How much could you reasonably afford to pay every month to pay off your debt? How long do you want to give yourself to pay off the loan?
These are all things that you should be considering before you go ahead and apply for a debt consolidation loan. If you set your goals too high or simply are not reasonable when you're making your goals, you may be setting yourself up for failure and may even end up hurting yourself more in the long run.
Providing Too Little Information
Anytime you apply for a debt consolidation loan, the consolidation company will ask you a series of questions pertaining to your financial well-being. What is your income? How much do you spend on expenses every month? Do you have children? Do you rent or own? The answers to all of these questions help the firm to design a plan that will allow you to work your way out of debt.
However, if you fail to answer any of these questions truthfully or simply don't answer them at all, you may be putting yourself at risk. The company may fail to put the right plan together or may just not be able to help you at all. Provide as much information as possibly initially to avoid any confusion later.
Trusting the Wrong Company
Always watch your own back when it comes to debt consolidation. There are thousands of debt consolidation companies out there, many that are illegitimate and only out for a quick buck. Do your research and find a company that will help you and not just be there to collect fees for you.
Ask someone in your family or a close friend if they have ever consolidated a loan. Can they recommend you to someone or tell you more about how they chose their debt consolidator? This could prove to be very valuable information later on down the line.
Missing Payments
One of the worst things you can do during debt consolidation after you apply and receive a loan is to miss a payment. In many cases, companies have tailor-made a plan for you to help you pay off your debt. They've negotiated with your credit card company for you and gotten you a much lower interest rate. But, if you miss a payment, you're proving that you cannot handle the loan.
Always make your payments on time to avoid extra penalties or losing your membership in the debt consolidation program. It is also a great way to make sure that you keep moving towards financial freedom.
Worried about sending your personal information to a debt consolidation company? Some helpful tips to help you avoid making a BIG mistake.
Dometri Quick is the development director at DebtConsolidationSupport.com. You can find more articles for helping you eliminate credit card debt at http://www.debtconsolidationsupport.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dometri_Quick

Debt Management Plan - Your Shield Against "Harassing" Creditors

A debt consolidation loan, under a debt management plan, is aimed at minimising your monthly financial outgoings. The minimisation of your pending debt is done after the debt consolidation agency holds meetings with your creditors. This meeting is aimed at reducing and if possible, eliminating the mounting fees and charges and obtaining fee waivers. After the settlement is made between the agency and the creditors, all of your debts will be consolidated into a single and affordable payment. In this way, you can easily pay off all the debts within a short span of time.
A good debt management program is an efficient way to take care of all the debt problems. Let us have a brief look at what things are undertaken by a debt management agency. The debt management advisors carry a thorough assessment of your financial situation and work out a suitable repayment plan for you besides offering debt counselling. This counselling will help you to manage your financial affairs in a far much better way. They also give their level best to minimise the interest rate and eliminate the repayment penalties, if any.
Your credit history is not affected in any way when you join a debt management program. The agency which is looking after the debt management plan will ensure that you are duly intimated about your account progress in the form of monthly statements depicting the payments received.
Now that we have studied much about the debt loans, debt management programs and agencies, let us now have a look at the debt management UK. As per a recent eminent market study, it was revealed that almost 75-80 percent of the customers in the UK have availed or planning to avail the services of debt management agencies to reduce or eliminate their owed debt. Now that the debt management has been taken care of, let us have a look at some valuable tips to ensure that the life is managed smoothly.
You must however make sure that you do not adopt the same spending habits and stay away from falling in the same trap. If you have any doubt about the functionality and credibility of the agency, you can seek advice from individuals who have been the beneficiaries of their debt management program or an unbiased advice from an impartial professional expert.
These agencies looking after your debt loans ensure that things do not go worse anymore besides ensuring a consistent and smooth management of the financial affairs. They also make sure that the creditors do not make harassing calls to you.
Thus it can be easily concluded that these Debt management plans help a financially burdened individual to lead a debt free life besides helping him to stay away from tempting debt offers.
For more information about loans: Online unsecured loans , Understanding more about unsecured loans
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Samantha_Bonsu

How to Find a Reliable Bills Consolidation Company

Do you feel trapped with bills for purchases made, for your essential commodities and various miscellaneous ones? You are not paying the bills timely and they are mounting up and up and finally leaded you to debt. No need to be stressed, bills consolidation firms are there to rescue you from drastic debt conditions you are facing.
A non profit consolidator is often considered while one is seeking financial assistance to get rid of debt condition generated because of unpaid debt. Bills consolidation firms provide you complete relief from the burden of your unpaid debt piled up by merging all of them in a single consolidated loan. These firms assist you in following steps:
• One receives s a complete analysis of his/her income, debt and spending habits. The bill consolidators act as a counselor and guide you to gain a perfect financial health. Their advice let you leave a more certain and stress free life without debt. They can set a defined budget for you to use as a framework for income and expenses.
• A non profit consolidator tries to minimize the fee as low as possible and provide funds on lower rates than the traditional lenders.
• With the significant follow-up support and assistance of a non profit consolidator it is easy for you to overcome from debt conditions. The consolidator pays all your bills and puts you on an "allowance" for personal expenses.
• If required your bill consolidator will advice you about changing spending habits to make you debt free.
Like any other field debt consolidation companies are also available in bunches. If you seek for one, a myriad of companies come on your way offering various debt management plans. It is important for you to shop around as you investigate a loan offer because rates and fee do vary significantly. To find a reliable debt consolidation firm you should proceed in following order:
Start with the yellow pages
Yellow page is the most proper channel to start with if you are looking for bill consolidation firm. You can find almost all the firms offering such loans around you. Once you get the list from yellow pages directory it's easy to proceed for further inquiry about their services and interest rates.
Internet
The Internet, the modern genie, can also assist you finding a bill consolidation company that suits you and can fulfill your requirements. Search for debt management and enter your city and state next to your search query to get local results or visit Google local and then search for consolidated loans.
Your local church
Your local church is another excellent platform for searching consolidated loans. Talk to your friends and relatives so that they can recommend you the one to trust upon. A referral can work more than any other option.
For more information you can call- 1-877-994-0998
Secure debt consolidation loans require a security to cover the bill if you can't pay it back and offers services of debt consolidation with reasonable and easy efforts.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Albert_Smith

Reduce Your Debt With A Debt Settlement or Debt Consolidation

It looks like the economy has changed and gas and food prices are going through the roof. If you are like the rest of us you can feel the pinch of rising cost and no rising income. Like the rest of us you are using your credit cards and getting into a situation where you have more debt than you once had before. Everyone likes to go out to eat or get away for a few days on vacation and the easiest way to accomplish this is to charge it. The big problem with this approach is it puts us further in debt and makes it harder to pay the minimum required by most credit card companies.
We need to decide what are we going to do to make the changes to get out of a debt situation. We must look at our financial situation and ask ourselves which is the best option so we can reduce out debt. You can do a Debt Consolidation which will allow you to take all of your credit cards and consolidate them into one loan. The benefits are you usually can get a lower interest rate than you are paying separately on all of your credit cards. Secondly it will allow you to make only one low monthly payment so you do not have to worry about keeping track of all your credit card payments.
Also if you find that your credit cards are just way out of control you can opt for a Debt Settlement where you can negotiate with the credit card company a lower amount that you can settle with them for. The benefits is you will not have to pay the full amount, the downside is it will show up on your credit report as a settlement and some lenders may frown on this.
It is important to do your homework whether you are Reducing your debt with a Debt Consolidation.
For more information on Debt Settlement's and Debt Consolidation go to: http://bigloanguide.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bryan_Burbank

Best Free Debt Consolidation - Some Useful Guidelines To Become Debt Free

Choosing the best free debt consolidation solution requires careful research, proper guidance and above everything, a good effort on your part.
Here Are Some Useful Tips To Help You Get Started
Look out for non-profit organizations that provide free debt consolidation help. Internet provides a host of such organizations. But, watch out! Non-profit counselors may not be entirely without charge. Read the fine print and make queries to clear all your doubts. You may end up paying many hidden charges.
A debt consolidation company may also offer advice without cost. The web helps you locate many such companies.
Whatever be your choice, remember to check out the credentials of your counselor. Better Business Bureau (BBB) is one such agency that can help you locate the best service provider.
What Kind of Solutions Can I Expect?
The most popular solution offered is taking a consolidation loan. A consolidated loan entails taking one mortgage to pay off many others.
Can This Really Help?
Yes, if you do your homework carefully. Some loan companies may charge very high fee for refinancing if they come to know that you are pushed into a corner by debt. So steer clear of predatory lending.
What Is Predatory Lending?
Strictly speaking, a clear definition does not exist. However, web defines predatory lending as "the practice of a lender deceptively convincing borrowers to agree to unfair loan terms or systematically violating those terms in a way that makes it difficult for the borrower to defend it." So, guard yourself against free advice suggesting you to take advances from a predatory lender.
So What Should I Look Out For?
Seek for a counselor who can provide you a good consolidation program.
Best Free Consolidation Program Will Offer You the Following:
A lower interest rate than what you are currently paying
A simple and workable schedule of payments
Effective coordination between the creditors and the loan provider
A time bound program to pay off your debits
Complete transparency in all the aspects of the advance. This will include a well-defined privacy policy, regular feedback to all your queries and providing help when you need the most.
Once you have chosen the best free consolidation program, you can rest assured that financial recovery is not far.
People, in an eagerness to have a trendy life style, spend lavishly beyond their means. They often end up in a huge debt and seek the best free debt consolidation service to bail them out. However, it is important to remember some useful points while looking out for debt consolidation company.For more information visit free debt consolidation help.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Saurabh_K_Jain

The Interest Rate Blues

Wow! I just couldn't believe it. I knew it was bad; but gee whiz! The Commerce Department has come out with the new numbers concerning new housing starts in 2007. The sharp decline (26.4 percent) shattered the old mark of 23.1 percent set in 1980 when prime interest rates were over 3 times of what they are today. These numbers tell a story which is very disconcerting to say the least. There are economists who are painting a doom and gloom picture while other economists are still ignoring the alarm bells. The reality of the situation is probably somewhere in the middle; however, lets apply some basic economic principles to the problem and analyze the numbers more closely.
We have to ask ourselves a not so simple question in order to understand how interest rates can be at close to record lows while housing starts are at an all time low as well. Common sense would seem to tell us that housing starts should be booming if interest rates are at or near the bottom. The variable that needs to be analyzed closely (because it is truly the wild card) is consumer confidence. Consumer confidence has been plummeting since early 2007. People are becoming very scared when thoughts are being considered concerning new home purchases. Most people are scaling down plans and purchasing used homes. Another alternative is to forego the purchase altogether. The latter is becoming the all too frequent solution to a dismal outlook of their future.
This overall problem of poor consumer confidence can bring an economy to its knees. The same dilemma faced the depression era populace and caused a second wave of economic anxiety when millions of Americans made a huge "run on the banks" in 1937. The government had to temporarily close the banks to give the public time to cool off and to reconsider their actions. I don't believe that the current crisis is anywhere near this crucial at this point; however, it is noteworthy to remember the role consumer confidence plays in the determination of how our economy expands or contracts.
The above paragraph can be contrasted with a period during the early 1980's when Fed Chairman Paul Volker raised prime interest rates above 15 percent in order to decrease inflation. The difference between today and the 1980's can be traced to The Great Communicator. President Reagan was able to slowly restore faith in the economy; and it was greatly accelerated during the greatest economic boom of the century in the ensuing decade. Many economists today believe we need to continue to raise rates despite the low consumer confidence levels. I think the difference maker will be the quality of leadership that emerges after the 2008 elections. Our economy will depend more on that factor than any economic index in 2009.
The one thing that we can depend on in the near future is uncertainty. This will make business working capital difficult to obtain. Business consolidation of debt may prove to be pivotal to survival and business expansion might have to take a back seat until we determine what the outcome will be. This makes this election year more important than any other since The Great Depression.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dale_O._Johnson

Don't Be Surprised When Debt Consolidation Fails To Deliver

These mounting statistics underscore a major problem with debt consolidation: It feeds upon the tendencies that got you in trouble in the first place. By taking on yet another creditor, you're adding the proverbial fuel to the fire. In this case, it's your money that's burning. In most cases if your so far in debt that you have to take out the equity in your home to help, your most likely a high risk and going to have a high risk loan.
But, if you want to roll the dice with your options:
Home equity loan or line of credit:
Home equity loans are often taken for a quick fix. This treats the symptoms, but does not cure the illness. Simply said, it pays the credit cards, but now you owe on the house for what, 20-30 years. The unsecured credit card/cards are now the home you raised your family in. Additionally, the debt you just paid off is now in good standing with your bank, and like most you're going to continue spending on these cards. This is where it gets dangerous, and about 80% of all consumers will fail here and double their debt. In most cases folks will end up calling an IAPDA Certified Debt Arbitrator for help. Life will happen creating additional hardships. By way of default on what now is your home loan you stand a strong chance loosing your home. Just because the bank said you can borrow an amount does not mean that is what you have to borrow that amount.
Balance transfer to a zero percent credit card:
Sounds great but is it? No, you're once again going to be hit by life and the same as above you will double your debt, forcing you to call an IAPDA Certified debt Arbitrator for help. When you should have called one in the firsts place. Getting the quick fix will help with the pain but fix the problem. This is the biggest problem for Texas consumers, as their homes were protected from the credit card company, but now they owe for a mortgage. Your home is no longer protected, and when "Life Happens" there goes the mortgage. Debt
Consolidation Loan: Even a bigger borrowing mistake that will lead to disaster.Before you sign on the dotted line, be sure that the costs of the new, bundled loan will truly be less than what you're already paying various creditors. For many consolidation-loan candidates, their current credit woes mean they won't get the lowest-available interest rate. Plus, when there is nothing to secure the loan (such as your home), expect the lender to bump up the rate. Your chances of getting a loan based on your credit are going to require some type of lien. This will be your home, car, boat or first born. The key is to resolve your debt, not bring on new debt. As consumer debt continues to soar out of control, most will take the first option that sounds good. The only real option to reduce your current debt is to face the current problem. You can try and work things out with your bank, but you will soon see the banks have no interest in helping.
Options:
Consumer Credit Counseling: In most cases they can lower your interest rate, and extend your term. But, the first time you or your agent are late, all that interest that was forgiven is now back and your in mounted debt that you can not manage. They claim to be non profit, but clearly when they ask your creditor for a share of your payment, that clearly defines greed.
Debt Settlement:
Your credit is already in trouble, don't worry about your credit yet. You need to be more worried about wage garnishment or your bank account being frozen. There is no looking back. Take control of your debt and hit it head on with an IAPDA Debt Arbitrator. With A qualified debt settlement company your likely to save 40-60 percent of what you owe, lower your monthly payment.
Things to look for in a debt settlement company:
* Does the Debt Settlement Company have IAPDA Certified Debt Arbitrators?
* Does the Debt Settlement Company you're looking into have a perfect BBB Report?
* Does the debt settlement company you are considering belong to the local Chamber of Commerce? If so, is the Chamber an accredited member of the Chamber of Commerce of the Unites States? This type of affiliation will help ensure that the company is conducting business in a proper manner.
* How much does the service cost?
When choosing a solution for debt relief, it's important to make sure the program is something that's affordable and realistic within your monthly budget. If you can't afford the program and join anyway, you're are just causing more long-term financial problems for yourself; however, if you are able to meet the monthly financial requirements of the program, Debt Settlement is a great form of debt relief for unwanted credit card debt. Most people don't realize that Debt Settlement is the least expensive form of debt relief outside of bankruptcy.
Tom Bates,CDACEO,President Absolute Debt Solutions, Inc.http://www.absolutedebtsolutions.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tom_Bates