What Do You Mean by Consolidation of Debt?

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What do you mean by consolidation of debt? How can I consolidate my debt to effectively manage monthly payments? We have some helpful information for you.

In 2018, American households debt hit $13.21 trillion spread out among 300 million people.

A prudent way to approach debt is by paying off the high-interest loans first. That way, you don’t have to pay a bundle in interest fees later on. However, when you crunch the numbers, you find that you’re financially incapable of clearing your high-interest loans, at least not at once.

If you’re in such a fix, then debt consolidation is your best way out. In this piece, we’ll be expounding on “what do you mean by consolidation?” and how you can benefit from debt consolidation.

What Do You Mean By Consolidation: The Lowdown

When you have tons of lingering high-interest loans, paying them off could really dent your bank account after a while. Smart people turn to debt consolidation to lessen their future financial burden. So what exactly is debt consolidation?

Debt consolidation means snowballing multiple high-interest debts into one single payment. You could pay off all the high-interest debts at once, or roll them into monthly payments that cover all these debts.

The latter is more feasible for most people.

The best way to do so is by taking out a personal loan. You can use this personal loan to pay off the high-interest debt, then pay off the loan later. You’ll have saved a lot from not paying the high interest that comes with delayed payments.

In some way, you can think of debt consolidation as borrowing a loan to pay off a larger loan. You can pay off the new loan later but at a much lower interest rate. If you do the math, you’ll find that you’ll have saved quite a lot through debt consolidation.

How Do You Consolidate Debt?

With so much money-saving potential, lots of people opt for debt consolidation to deal with their high-interest loans. There are two major ways to consolidate your debt, and these are:-

Take Out a Fixed-Rate Loan

As mentioned earlier, you can consolidate your debt by taking out a personal loan. A fixed-rate loan works best for debt consolidation because you don’t have to pay high-interest fees later on. It’s the ideal method to borrow to pay a larger loan.

Get a 0% APR Credit Card

For credit card debt, you can transfer all of them to a 0% APR credit card. After that, you can pay off all the debt during the card’s promotional period. Moving all your debt to a balance transfer is a great way to consolidate your debt, but it doesn’t work for all situations.

First, not everyone qualifies for a 0% APR credit card. This credit card is only available for consumers with stellar credit card scores. You might need a credit score of 670 and above to qualify; for some, you might need even more.

Debt Consolidation Is a Wise Move

Hopefully, you can now comfortably answer a question such as, “What do you mean by consolidation?” Consolidating your debt is a wise move, as opposed to paying them off later with colossal interest. If you can’t qualify for a 0% APR credit card, then a personal loan is your best bet.

For more insightful reads, be sure to check out other pieces on the site.

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Samantha Acuna is a writer based in San Francisco, CA. Her work has been featured in The Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com, and Yahoo Small Business.