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Debt Consolidation Refi Loan – Refinance And Get Out Of Debt

Before mortgage interest rates begin to rise, homeowners must take advantage of low rates and refinance their mortgage. Refinancing serve many useful purposes. Aside from presenting the perfect opportunity to lock in at a low rate, many homeowners are able to borrow against their equity and use the money to become debt free.

What Are Debt Consolidation Refi Loans?

Consolidating debts has become an effective means for reducing and eliminating debts. Many people have more debt than they can handle. Some have discovered quick ways to get out of debt. Yet, millions of people struggling to pay minimum fees continue to search for a strategy.

If you own a home, there may be a practical answer to reducing debts. Debt consolidation refinance loans are extremely popular and for good reason. Your home is literally a cash machine. In order to tap into the equity, most people choose to sell their homes. However, if you select a refinance, it is possible to receive cash from the equity, while continuing to live in the home. The money can be used to consolidate debts and improve credit score.

How Do They Work?

The concept of a debt consolidation refi loan is very simple, and doable. To begin, homeowners must agree to create a new mortgage loan. This involves applying for a new mortgage with a new lender or your current lender. Most people apply for a new loan in order to get a lower rate, etc.

In addition to obtaining a better rate, homeowners who have built a large amount of equity in their homes have the option of borrowing money from their equity. This is termed a cash-out refinancing. By doing so, the new mortgage principle will be higher than the previous. Once homeowners obtain their money at closing, the funds may be used to payoff their debts. This is a smart maneuver for individuals hoping to raise their credit score.

Comparing Refi Lenders

Although your current mortgage lender will be more than happy to assist you with a new mortgage, it is important to shop around and compare offers from other refi lenders. Comparison shopping is very essential if you have poor credit. The easiest way to compare different lender rates is online. Many mortgage sites offer online comparisons and instant quotes.

The number of people facing serious debt problems continues to rise inexorably, with recent research suggesting up to a million Britons could potentially be in genuine danger of bankruptcy. The situation will only get worse if, as predicted, the Bank of England starts to increase interest rates from their current historic lows, leading to higher mortgage payments having to be made from already overstretched budgets.

If you’re one of the many thousands facing real problems in meeting your repayments, you’ve probably been looking for ways out of your predicament, and you’ll probably have come across sites advertising debt consolidation and debt management as possible solutions. What’s the difference, and which one is right for you?

Debt consolidation is the simplest and most straightforward way of dealing with debt. The basic idea is that you take out another loan which is large enough to pay off all your current debts such as credit cards, personal loans, overdrafts and the like. This leaves you with one single monthly repayment to make, which is already a great step forward in making your finances easier to control.

By making sure that the loan you take out is at a comparitively low interest rate, you should find that your total monthly repayment is lower than it was when you were servicing many smaller, more expensive debts. Also, choosing a longer term to repay your new loan will lower the costs even more.

This sounds perfect in theory, but consolidation isn’t without its problems. Firstly, you’re not actually reducing your debt, just your monthly repayments. While this may take the pressure off in the short term, in the long term you’re likely to be paying more interest overall as you’ll be taking longer to clear the debt. You’re also usually shifting unsecured debt onto a secured loan, which could put your home at risk if you start to struggle with your repayments.

Debt management is an altogether different and more drastic way of tackling your debt. By entering into a management program, you’re handing over the day to day management of your debt to a company who specialises in negotiating with people’s creditors. This debt management company will contact everyone you owe money to, and try to negotiate lower repayments by rescheduling your debt, freezing interest, or even cancelling past charges and fees.

You’ll still be responsible for repaying much of the debt of course, but in many cases large amounts of your debt can be wiped out almost overnight. There’a also the advantage that you only have to make one repayment a month, direct to the management company, who will then distribute it among your creditors.

Entering into debt management can be a very effective way to reduce your debt and all but eliminate the stresses it causes, but there’s also a pretty major problem with it. You’ll effectively be breaking the credit agreements you signed, which will severely harm your credit rating for the future. However, once bitten by debt, you might not be too concerned about having problems taking out more credit in the future.

So which is right for you? Consolidation is a popular ‘quick fix’ and can simplify your finances considerably, at the expense of more interest being paid in the long term, and is a good choice for people who are struggling with their debt to a moderate level. Management is a more drastic solution, and should only be considered by people who really have little alternative, and who are unable to get a consolidation loan because of their credit ratings.

Its a question that has stumped wise men (with overdrawn credit limits) for generations. Do I file for bankruptcy, or do I get debt consolidation loan and spend ten years paying off my debt?

The simple answer is, if you can do the latter, do it.

Sure, bankruptcy means you dont owe anything to anyone (well, sometimes it means you need to sell your assets, but more often than not youre starting afresh), but it also means a big fat black mark on your record that will never go away (despite what some people say about seven years being a magic slate cleaner).

Bankruptcy marks you as a bad risk for every potential lender. Mortgage lenders, credit card companies, employers they all see that credit history and get the same furrowed brow.

And even worse, the Bush administration has chosen to pass laws that mean, now, if you go bankrupt owing money to a credit card company, they can take your family home.

Yes, thats right, the government has made it law that, unlike big businessmen who can go bankrupt every second year without penalty, normal people like you can have your family home taken off you just because you couldnt keep up with your MBNA payments.

Of course, the credit card companies were behind the bill, and spent millions on Congressmen and Senators to ensure it passed without too much debate, and millions of Americans who look at their debt and think, Well, I can always go bankrupt, have no idea that if they do, theyll genuinely lose everything they have.

Which leaves us with the other option debt consolidation.

Debt consolidation is when you gather all the debts you owe, pool them into one amount, and borrow that amount from a bank or other financial institution, to be repaid over a long period of time, at a set (and low) interest rate.

It means that everything you owe to Sears and Best Buy and MBNA and Citicard is suddenly paid off, and all you owe is one long-term debt to a stable, secure, eager to help you stay afloat bank.

Think about it why carry six debts that all need to be repaid in the short term, when you can have one debt that doesnt have to be completely repaid for years? It just makes sense.

Over the last decade Americans have accumulated excessive amounts of debt. Partially fueled by low interest rates and increased equity on houses due to real estate markets driving prices high up. Excessive spending and no financial responsibility often lead to bankruptcy of consumers. Now with the new bankruptcy law in place filing for bankruptcy has become much more difficult and much more expensive.

More and more people have now to look out for different alternatives. Debt consolidation programs can help consumer to get rid of the burden of excessive debt and may reduce a consumers monthly costs by hundreds of dollars each month. Debt consolidation experts can help consumers to assess their individual situation and make recommendations for how to approach the situation.

With the assistance of a debt consolidation professional, a consumer can work out a customized debt consolidation plan Depending on the severity of the situation the debt consolidation professional will contact the credit card companies of the consumer to negotiate a way out of the existing situation.

Debt consolidation is easy to get started. All it takes is a simple phone call or online inquiry. A consumer should research which companies have a good reputation as there are quite a few debt consolidation businesses out there that charge a lot of money and do not provide valuable service. They actually make things worse. A consumer also needs to be honest about the situation and willing to work with creditors. Hiding things will not help getting a consumer back on track.

While filing for bankruptcy might sound like the easier way out, this is not necessarily true. The damage to the credit score and the credit report is worse compared to working the way out of a big pile of debt. In the long run it also does not help. A change of how people think about these things has to be made. Filing for bankruptcy is pretty much somebody else paying for your debt. Credit Card companies and banks will move these losses over into charges and everyone will have to pay more to cover bankruptcy losses. The consumer also does not learn how to work with a budget and often bankruptcy filings are done twice or more by the same people. By biting the bullet and paying off debt a learning process is established that will help to gain more financial freedom in the long run.