Debt Consolidation: Do It Yourself
However, if your situation is not so complicated, you can carry out your own debt consolidation process without too many hassles.
If you don’t have too many creditors and different types of loans and credit cards, solving your debt problems doesn’t have to be so complicated. You can save the money a debt consolidation company will charge you and solve your financial difficulties by yourself.
Debt Negotiation
The main part of a debt consolidation program is debt negotiation. What you need to do is to contact the lenders and try to speak with someone who has the ability to decide over your debt. This can usually be done with personnel from administrative or legal departments. Customer Service won’t help you on this matter; just ask them to put you through to the proper department.
Once you’ve contacted the lender, you need to make things clear. You have to state that you are unable to repay your debt under the current terms and that you need to have your debt rescheduled under more advantageous terms in order for them to get their money back. Don’t mean it as a menace, you need to sound concerned, they need to understand that you want to pay but you can’t and that if they are flexible enough they’ll be able to recover their money without entering long and costly legal processes.
Unless the lender holds a real estate guarantee, chances are that they will tailor a new loan with favorable terms so you can retake your monthly payments without sacrifices. If you are convincing enough you can get all the debt created due to punitive fees and interests eliminated and a new loan reschedule to suit your needs.
Get a Loan for Consolidating
Another thing you can do, either instead or after debt negotiation is to obtain a loan for a considerable amount repayable over a long period of time so you can use the money to cancel outstanding debt and end up with a single monthly payment with a lower interest rate. By doing so you’ll get the same results as a debt consolidation company handling your payments. You’ll have a single monthly installment to worry about and you’ll also save thousands of dollars on interests over the whole life of the loan.
Doing this after debt negotiation is better, since you’ll already have reduced your debt substantially after debt negotiation. If you add to that reduction the money you save by exchanging your current debt with a single debt consolidation loan, you’ll really improve your financial situation and you’ll be able to recover from bad credit within a couple of months.
In order to get approved for such a loan you’ll need to hold some equity on your home. This kind of loan can only be obtained by applying for a secured loan. A home loan, a cash out refinance loan and a home equity loan are the options suggested by most debt advisors.
By: Mary Wise
June 10, 2010
What Are Your Options Using Government Debt Consolidation?
There are many options to getting out of debt; one of these is a government debt consolidation. A government consolidation can really benefit some people more than a regular debt consolidation. Depending on your type of debt a government consolidation may be your best if not only option. Yes the government may actually be able to help alleviate some of the stress through a consolidation.
Government debt consolidation works in basically the same way as regular consolidation in that it puts all of it into one low payment, instead of several high payments. This lower amount will make it easier and faster to become debt free.
Applying for consolidation is fairly easy. To get a debt consolidation you should go to your local government agency or even through an online application. There is usually an agency available to almost everyone that can offer free help including consolidation. Customer service is usually the first step in finding out about government debt consolidation. Doing so online can be done quickly and more conveniently and can even help you get approved faster.
Not only are there government agencies that can offer debt consolidation but they can also offer counseling to help you stay out of debt after getting a consolidation. These counseling services can also help you figure out how to best spend your money, how to pay off your bills properly and help you get out from under the debt that you are already in and stay out of it. These services are usually free as well. These services can also be found online and through your local government agency as well.
Those who qualify for a government debt consolidation is pretty much anyone who is having trouble getting out from under their debt on their own. You can apply for free and find out for sure, but you will not be at risk of losing anything, because most applications are free. If you are not approved for consolidation then they can always point you in the right direction. Either way it won’t hurt to try or you could always qualify and be on your way to being debt free, just like that.
As you can see there is really no excuse for being stressed out and living in debt any longer than you have to. Whether you go to the government or another source for help you have many options, and many of them are free. So give government debt consolidation a try, it can’t hurt anything to at least try and can even be the first step to living debt free.
By: Mike Singh
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