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If you start to find it difficult keeping up with your monthly bills, possibly because you have a large number of accounts to repay, or possibly because your income is now not covering all your repayment requirements, it may be time to look at how a debt consolidation loan can help you.

If you have a number of high interest loans or credit cards, you derive great benefit from a debt consolidation loan. Not only will you save money by lowering the interest rate, you will now only have to make one monthly repayment which makes it all so much easier to manage your finances.

One other thing to bear in mind is that if you have several credit cards and you can only afford to pay the minimum monthly amount required, you may find that you are paying off those cards for the a very long time indeed. In most instances, the card companies design the minimum payment to repay all of the interest owed, but to pay very little off the actual capital balance. Another article I wrote showed how it would take 97 years to pay off a credit card debt of £5,000 if you just repay the minimum monthly requirement.

So, you have decided that a debt consolidation loanis the best way forward. What you need to do now is to sit down and write down all of your debts on a piece of paper. Add the name of the creditor, the total balance owed, what you currently pay each month, what the minimum payment is, and how much interest you pay.

Once you know how much you need to consolidate all your debts, the next thing to do is apply for the loan.

If you are looking for less than £15,000 and have a clean credit record, you should be able to apply to your bank. However. if you are already behind with some payments, then you will probably need to find a company that specialises in debt consolidation loans, as they usually cater for people with a poor credit history.

When you are offered a loan you may find that you are not able to borrow enough to clear all your debts. This being the case, you will need to decide which loans would be best to consolidate, and that the consolidation loan is actually going to be of benefit. If the new loan has a high interest rate, it is possible that you may not be helping yourself out financially. You need to weigh up what the new loan will cost compared to what you are currently paying.

Once you have consolidated all of your debts, avoid building up more debt on credit cards and loans before you have paid off your loan. It often happens that people who get a debt consolidation loan later fall into the trap of using their credit cards again, long before the debt consolidation loan has been cleared.

If you do find that you require another loan, try to research the available products as best you can in order to get the best rate loan available.