Personal Finance

You’re sitting there one day, off from work due to the stress of your unsecured debts weighing heavily upon your shoulders. Suddenly, in the background noise from the TV you hear a fantastic deal – consolidate your existing debts into ‘one easy affordable loan’. You think wow, just what I need to get my debts under control and you get the sales blurb.

Sounds great doesn’t it?

Debt consolidation in the UK is not a new phenomena these days. It’s been around a while. Lots of people have taken out debt busting consolidation loans. So why is the amount of debt in the UK still rising so fast? And why are bankruptcies, IVA’s and debt counselling services stretched to their limits and running at all time high figures right now? Well people get sold on the advantages but I’d recommend thinking about the disadvantages too!

Advantages of debt consolidation UK

Well the interest rate normally comes down on the unsecured debt amount borrowed making the monthly payments easier to afford.

Your debts come under control quickly so the annoying telephone calls and letters from irate creditors stops.

Disadvantages of debt consolidation UK (this is the bit they don’t want you to think too hard about)

To get a debt consolidation loan usually requires some form of property. By consolidating the unsecured debts to your home some of the equity has now been lost. So what was once an unsecured debt now forms part of a charge over your property. Every legal advert in the UK selling this type of service will point out in the small print that your home is at risk if you fail to keep up payments on (this now larger) secured loan. So you’ve put more risk onto your property. I regularly meet people who have bought their house maybe 20 years ago for figures like £80,000 on a house worth £110,000 to find that a decade on they have a house worth (say) £180,000 with a new debt consolidated mortgage of £150,000. So they still only have a similar amount of equity in the property but also have a mortgage now nearly double in size!

Another disadvantage is that the term of the borrowing is usually increased. Well sometimes the debt consolidation companies in the UK will sell that as a benefit with a line like ‘you can take longer to pay your debt and allow yourself time to get on top of your borrowing over the coming years’. I find that an odd statement. You have doubled your mortgage in a decade and you have found yourself in debt but suddenly your spending habits will change and you’ll be debt free at some point in the future. What are your thoughts as you read that? Another interesting point arises here. Because the term is often longer, you will possibly end up paying much more of your hard earned money for that unsecured borrowing by the time you pay off your new secured lending.

Did the debt consolidation company ask what your lifetime ambitions are? You see, you may have got out of the immediate debt issues but you may just also have signed away the possibility of that early retirement / new car / that holiday to see your family down under too. You see, if the amount you are paying back is higher than you had budgeted for then you may need to work longer to achieve your dreams. Was this discussed with you?

Did you consider at least 6 solutions for getting our of debt trouble before you decided on your debt consolidation loan? Can the company you speak to even name 6 solutions for getting out of debt trouble? If not then you have ignored several other options that may have been more suitable for the financial position you found yourself in. It’s rare indeed to find loan and mortgage brokers that are fully trained in solutions to tackle insolvency and debt issues. They have their offering and will talk about the monthly repayment figures to demonstrate how you could be better off, but is it the best way forward? Well naturally, that depends on your situation.

A final word on debt consolidation in the UK

Now, I do believe that debt consolidation has its place but I also think that there could be more done to understand that there are other options for getting out of debt. Getting the right debt help and advice is essential. Look at the advantages and the disadvantages for each solution you consider for debt resolution and then make a more informed decision.

There are more options for getting out of debt trouble then most people realise, that includes debt consolidation but is not limited to just that course of action.

If you would like to know what the 6 solutions to debt in the UK are then you can get debt help and advice from Ed Pearson at Debt Dr.

This article does not constitute regulated advice. Please remember that any action regarding financial advice should always be taken only after considering the specifics of your own situation.

To find out more about Ed try, http://www.advice4debt.co.uk/debtquiz.htm

Ed Pearson is a Debt Dr offering debt help and advice to individuals and small businesses across the UK.

Whilst you may love the stuff he writes, you should only ever take action once you have considered your own set of financial circumstances with a professional. This article does not constitute financial advice.

If you are dealing with bad credit and you want to repair it, you should first search out a debt consolidation loan. But if you have bad credit, what firm will help you acquire a loan to relieve your financial situation? Debt merger loans can help you repair your credit and improve your credit rating. A debt consolidation loan will allow you to get on the path to an improved credit score.

 

When you get a debt consolidation loan, the loan amount you receive is then used to pay off all of your creditors at once. By paying off all of your creditors at one time, you are fixing all of your credit problems at once. After your debtors are paid the money you owe them, you will begin paying off the loan consolidation company in agreed upon monthly installments. These loans are meant for people with poor credit so that they can fix their credit rating.

 

A large amount of debt consolidation loans that you can obtain from credit repair firms are secured with a low interest rate compared to the interest rate of credit cards. This by itself will help you improve your overall credit rating. However, the interest rate on a debt consolidation loan will be higher than an interest rate you might get with a normal loan. If you are able to get a debt consolidation loan from a credit repair firm, you may be charged a nine percent interest rate in comparison to a twenty percent interest rate on credit cards. Over time you will have the capability to save a great deal of money and this will most assuredly improve your credit rating

 

Debt consolidation firms that help you receive a debt consolidation loan will charge you a fee for their services. The fees vary depending on the company you use. If you take on the very difficult task of locating a debt consolidation loan you will have to do a great deal of research on the internet or in the library. Debt consolidation loans are meant only for those individuals who do not have a very good credit rating and credit score so that they will have the ability to fix their credit and make their credit score go higher on their credit report.

 

One of the most important things to remember when trying to obtain a low or zero interest loan is to look for the cheapest loan that you have the ability to get. You may end up going to various lenders but ultimately, the important thing is that you should be happy with the interest rate that you are going to pay. Good research can mean the difference between paying fifteen percent interest and nine interest.

 

Obtaining a debt consolidation loan from a credit repair firm is only half of the job that lies ahead of you. The other half of the job is making sure that you pay the required monthly payments and that you do so on time.

It is through personal finance that people are able to prepare individual budgets that distribute upcoming incomes towards savings, expenditure and debt repayments.

Keeping up to date personal finance records is very important but many people break the progress when done manually.

The use of personal finance software has thus helped many make their spending lives better and convenient than if they were to do it using books and pens.

The features that any ordinary person cannot come up with especially in normal bookkeeping methods are already incorporated in the software.

With the computers, work is made easier in cases where some files need to be deleted, edited, duplicated over and over again than it is done with books, pens and rubbers.

These is the product household needs to track down the cash inflows and outflows on a daily basis and compare it with the estimations of the budgets.

Personal finance software benefits to look for

Ability to use it for multitasks- good personal finance software does not limit one only to a few tasks.

It should offer you the opportunity to do things like banking and paying bills online, control your investments in stocks, mutual funds, bonds, transfer data to a tax software to save on taxes and so on.

It should offer features on account transactions and reconciliation such that it also gives the users the ability to carry out banking functions like writing and printing checks.

For those who operate international trade, the software should offer users the capability of exchanging currencies among other things electronically.

The features- as technology progresses, software programmers keep updating the versions of a particular product they have made a name for to the target publics.

This one for personal finance is not any different, and if you already are using it, it is advisable to keep knowledge of what the owners are doing to make it more user friendly than before, so you can order the newest and improved version.

Great features allows you to work fast and effortlessly because such actions as transactions needing to be replicated, deleted, edited can easily be done automatically.

Since most people require some of the legal data such as tax updates and reviews from the IRS or stock market reviews for instance, such personal finance software should have this feature.

Easy to use- Firstly, the users must not find it difficult to install in their computers.

It must also be easy to use by any person with the knowledge of basic bookkeeping in the sense that they can understand the help topics and navigate through it.

Must enable financial forecast- people make big investments in buying homes, insurance policies, paying debts, paying collage fees, paying taxes, savings and many other monetary goals before their earning lives can diminish.

They therefore need to keep good records showing how each of these goals is progressing and with personal finance software that allows such actions, they can achieve a lot.

Final reports- after all the transactions are made on a daily basis, an effective software for your individual funds will provide the final information and summaries so you can see how much you deviated from the budget for a given period.

It is by using this kind of software that you can see clearly how your finances has been used in the past, currently and make informed projections for the coming days.