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What is Loan
Consolidation?
A new loan that is created by combining the repayment of two or more
loans to reduce the amount of monthly payments and extend the loan
repayment term. |
What is
Loan Consolidation?
A new loan that is created by combining the repayment of two or more
loans to reduce the amount of monthly payments and extend the loan
repayment term.
• This is a further loan to pay of all or some existing debts.
• The monthly repayments are lower.
• The overall term is usually longer, eg 5 – 10 years.
• These loans can be unsecured or secured against your assets, eg your
home.
Is it right for me?
You should be very careful before entering into a consolidation loan
whether secured or unsecured.
At first glance it looks appealing as the monthly payments are lower and
you are dealing with just one creditor. However you should bear in mind
the following:
• Your debt is immediately bigger once you consolidate.
• What you owe is not the settlement figure but the total of all the
outstanding payments.
• This is only a solution if all credit cards are destroyed and this is
the only form of credit.
• Some people do this several times and it is the reason that there debt
increases so rapidly.
• Often if you do this and have only one or two creditors, but then
cannot afford to pay the monthly amounts, the IVA is much harder if not
impossible to get accepted.
However, there are circumstances where this is the right choice - Talk
to an adviser at Vincent Bond to discuss your situation and they will
help you decide the best option for your situation.
What will a consolidation loan cost?
There are no set up fees as such, but the key to understanding the cost
is simply to do the maths.
If you are borrowing £15000 and are told you will pay £200 a month,
don’t forget to check how long the loan is for.
It may sound reasonable if you only consider the monthly amount. However
when you realise it is a 10 year loan (120 months) you would probably
think very differently!
What to do
Simply multiply the monthly payment by the total number of months the
loan is for. Then deduct the amount you borrowed – that is the cost of
the loan.
In the above example:
£200 x 120 months = £24,000. Subtract the initial loan of £15000 =
£9000. The loan has cost an extra £9000.
Note
If you struggled to pay this new loan in the first few months, the
amount you owe in an IVA or debt plan would always be calculated as the
total outstanding payments, not the settlement figure (‘pay today’
figure). This is how many people get further into debt – they have often
not spent anything like total debt they end up with.
Caution!
Often a debt consolidation loan is secured against assets like your
home. If you use a consolidation loan and then continue to use your
credit cards you may well find that you get into a worse situation.
We only recommend a consolidation loan if we feel it is affordable to
you and on the basis that you will destroy your credit cards
understanding that you will need to change your spending habits.
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Vincent Bond on the BBC more |
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Vincent Bond on the BBC more |
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