Practical Advice on Credit Card Debt Consolidation Loans

By Morgan Hamilton

Anyone looking to find an answer for their mounting debt has probably at least heard of credit card debt consolidation loans. The term is actually often misused when referring to credit card debt consolidation. It is important that people properly understand exactly what their options are so we're going to take a look at those right now.

Debt consolidation is a service debt consolidation services offer their clients that enables the consumer to make a single monthly payment on all of their credit card balances. The reason this is done is so that interest rates can be lowered, penalties and fees eliminated and to create a situation where the one monthly payment is more affordable than before.

Credit card debt consolidation loans are really not loans at all. The program has been created to help people pay off their debts without having to default. If a consumer wants to pay off their credit card debt with a loan, they will have to do so by borrowing money against the equity of their home or by taking out another type of personal loan. They will then pay off the credit card debt completely and pay the loan off instead. Loans are not very easy to come by these days, so unless you have pristine credit this is likely not an option.

If the consumer is in fact looking for a loan to completely pay off their credit card debt then it is actually not a debt consolidation loan at all. What the consumer is doing is not consolidating their debt but rather using the loan to pay it off. The distinction between the two is where the confusion usually begins for some people.

Rather than using credit card debt consolidation loans to pay off your credit card debt, debt consolidation companies and credit counseling services actually works as a mediator between creditor and debtor. They do everything they can to negotiate workable terms so that you can afford to pay off your credit card balances in an affordable manner.

These debt consolidation services are able to do that because they have pre-existing relationships with financial institutions and they understand the way that they operate. The credit card companies are willing to accept payments with lower interest rates because they understand that the consumer that owes the money can no longer afford it and is close to defaulting on their payments, in which case, the credit card company would get nothing.

This process requires the consumer to close all of their credit card accounts. It then takes approximately 4 to 5 years before the credit card debt is completely paid off. Thought these are not credit card debt consolidation loans, they are very helpful to many consumers as a means of getting out of debt and back on their feet financially. - 29971

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