How Consolidating Your Debt Will Affect Your Credit

When you are deep in debt, it is easy to feel like there is a massive weight pushing down on you, and it is not something many people would want to have to cope with. There are some ways to get rid of the debt, however. If you are able to just continue to make payments, eventually the debt will be gone, but if you are finding it hard to manage owing to several different lenders, then you could consider consolidating your debt. If you are a home owner, then a home equity loan can help you manage your debt, and improve your credit score.

If your debt is currently unmanageable, then taking a mortgage to bay the debt can really help. Consolidating in this way can help your credit. You are, essentially, just transferring the debt to a different lender, but it will appear on a credit search that you have paid off a lot of debt, which will help improve your credit rating. Of course, you will need to make consistent payments on the new loan, otherwise your home could be at risk.

Consolidating Your Debt - Some Warnings

Consolidating your debt can be a very good way to make your debt more
manageable, but it is not a 'magic bullet' - you will still owe the money, and you will still need to pay it back, it simply makes the payments more manageable. You could end up paying back more money in the long term - especially if your monthly payments are lower. If you can afford to pay back your debt without consolidating, it is worth trying to do so, as it will be much cheaper in the long term.

You should make sure that you use the consolidation money to pay off your credit cards and loans. If you have more than one card, cancel some of them, and put the others away in a safe place - for emergency use only. Make sure you do not run up debts again.

When you consolidate and close down some of your credit accounts, you will get many offers for new credit cards and loans. Some of these may be worth considering - if you can get rid of your high interest credit cards and replace them with ones with lower interest rates then you can make the credit work for you. Do not just take up cards and spend on them without considering if you can pay them back. If you are tempted to spend on a card, think about the reason you had to consolidate in the first place. Credit is useful for emergencies, and you can make credit work for you, but you should always keep an eye on your budget, to avoid having your debts spiral out of control.

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