Friday, October 31, 2008

A Look At Secured Debt Consolidation

By William Blake

One of the most effective ways of dealing with multiple debts such as credit cards and department store financing is with a debt consolidation loan. In a lot of cases, you'll need to offer some kind of collateral to secure these loans, such as your house or your car.

You can find consolidation loans in a number of places. There are lenders in most large cities - as well as on the internet - that specialize in debt consolidation loans.

At the early stage when you're researching options, the internet can provide a lot of value. There are plenty of websites out there where you'll get detailed information about debt consolidation and they make is easy to compare services when choosing an agency.

When you consolidate multiple debts into a single consolidation loan, it means you only need to make a single payment every month instead of one to each of the creditors. The interest is almost always lower on these loans as well, so over the time it takes to pay it off you can save a lot of money in interest costs.

When you start looking for a consolidation loan, your credit score is going to have a bearing on what you can get. A lower credit score generally means you'll have to put up collateral to secure the loan, plus you may wind up with a higher interest rate than someone with a better credit score.

Collateral is usually some type of personal property that has a significant value, equal to or greater than the amount of the loan. Obviously, the value of your collateral will affect the size of consolidation loan you will qualify for.

Once you have your consolidation loan in place, all your current debts will be paid off, leaving you with just the single loan payment to make every month.

At this point the most important thing you can do is to get that loan paid off quickly and absolutely do not run your credit cards back up.

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