Debt Free Journey

Helping you make sense of your money

By the time you get fed up enough to do some research online about debt relief consolidation you are probably on the brink of losing everything.  Now is the time to act.  You can’t put it off any longer.  You have to face the issue and deal with it.  This article can help.

At this point one of the things you need to do is to honestly face the reasons you are in this situation. If you’ve lost your job, had unexpected medical bills, or some other circumstance beyond your control there’s not much you can do.

If, on the other hand, the biggest reason you are in this situation is because you use credit to live beyond your means you have to realize that if you don’t change your financial habits you will be in trouble again no matter what you do now.

If this describes you and your financial lifestyle a consolidation loan will only be like a band aid. It will be a temporary fix but won’t permanently cure the problem.  You need to change your outlook on how and when you use credit.

Now that you’ve come the point where you’re ready to make changes you will still need to deal with the mess at hand, it’s time to find the right consolidation loan for you.

There are two kinds of loans available, secured and unsecured.

Secured are usually the easiest to get since you will put your house up for collateral. Just remember that since you are putting your house up for collateral this puts you in the most risk.  If something happens and you default on your payments you could lose your house.

You have to be very careful to not fall into the trap of paying off all your credit cards and then turning right around  and racking up a lot of debt again.  This could be very hazardous to your financial health since now you would have not only the credit cards to pay off but another mortgage payment as well.

An unsecured loan lessens your exposure, and increases the banks exposure, which is why these are usually harder to get.  You will need excellent credit to get an unsecured loan and even then you probably won’t get as much as you would with a secured loan.

Just like with the secured loan you have to be careful to not turn right around and rack up a lot of credit card debt.  Even though your house isn’t at risk the bank isn’t going to bail you out time and again.

No matter what option of debt relief consolidation you choose just remember to honestly evaluate your financial strengths and weaknesses so that you don’t repeat the mistakes of the past.