Sunday, June 28, 2009

Benefits of Debt Consolidation Program

Debt consolidation program is a good option for those who are looking to pay off debt in order to lead a tension-free life. Debt Consolidation program offers a number of benefits and helps you to save thousands of dollars.

Benefits of Debt Consolidation program:
A debt consolidation program helps you to pay off your debt within a period of 4-6 years. This is possible as you're offered an affordable payment plan approved by your creditors. consolidation companies/law firm distribute your payment to individual creditors while you make monthly payments to them. Thus, when you consolidate bills, you don't need to deal with different creditors.

Debt consolidation or bill consolidation (loan consolidation) helps to waive off or reduce penalties and accrued interest on your bills. Use debt calculators to work out how much you'll save by loan consolidation.


6 ways to pay off debt
Debt consolidation program is no doubt one of the smart ways to pay off your debt. However, there are 6 other options to help you manage your bills and pay off your debt.

Self repayment plan:

Self repayment plan is an option where you don't need professional debt assistance. You can pay off your debt on your own. All you have to do is, assess your financial situation, prepare a budget and follow a repayment plan accordingly. Budgeting helps you to avoid overspending and increases savings or free money to pay off debt.

Debt management:

Debt management is a debt assistance program which allows you to deposit money with a credit counseling agency. The agency then uses this deposit to pay off your bills according to a payment plan negotiated with your creditors. When you're into a debt management plan (DMP), chances are that your creditors may lower interest rate and waive off certain fees. The best thing is, you can pay back your bills in a comparatively short time.

Debt settlement:

It's a process through which you can pay off debt by taking help of settlement companies. These companies negotiate with creditors thereby reducing your outstanding balance by 40%-60%. Once you settle the dues, you can save good amount of dollars as you don't need to pay the entire balance.
Debt consolidation loans: This is a kind of personal loan with which you can consolidate your dues (credit cards, medical bills and unsecured loans) into a single payment. That is, you pay off debts using a single loan. Then you'll have to make a single payment each month in order to pay back the consolidation loan. This helps in paying off debts without having to deal with several creditors at a time.

Bill consolidation: This is helpful especially when you need to consolidate bills. This is similar to loan consolidation wherein a bill consolidation company negotiates for reduction in interest rates so that you can pay off debt. It helps to consolidate your dues into a single easy payment each month thereby reducing your financial burden.

Bankruptcy: Apart from debt consolidation or settlement, bankruptcy is another option to help you get rid of your dues. As a consumer, you can file either Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy depending upon which type will suit you and which one you'll qualify for. However, it is best to avoid bankruptcy because it ruins your credit history and does not help you to write off all your dues.