money for my life

To Consolidate or Not

At times, it can be extremely tempting to consolidate all of your debt into one, convenient payment.  Let’s look at some pros and cons

 

PROS

 

* Instead of having multiple payments to juggle and figure out which one gets paid at which time, when you consolidate, you will have a single payment to be made at one place. 

* You know how much interest you are paying each month because it is all in one convenient location.

*Having everything in one place will show you immediate progress toward the whole.

 

CONS

* Depending on the interest rate that you get for your consolidation, you may end up paying more for everything in the long run.

* Once you have consolidated, it is much more difficult to get the interest rate lowered. 

* The intimidation of one monthly lump sum may seem a bit unsettling at first.

 

I was fortunate the first time through (you will recall that I have been saddled with debt many times in my life) that I was able to secure a personal loan at my credit union.  My father was kind enough to cosign for me and I was able to get a low rate with a decent monthly payment.  It was certainly lower interest rate than I was paying combined on my credit cards.  If you have someone who can cosign for you, a personal loan might be a good thing for you (but I am not in the position to offer you loan advice).

 

Read more at my website.

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