How to Consolidate Debt

Video Transcript

"So you're looking to consolidate your debt. Let me give you a few tips that may help you with this situation. First off you're going to need to know who exactly is it that you owe? Usually it's credit cards or personal loans, maybe even some medical bills that you're looking to pull in together to make one consolidated debt vehicle. You'll need to list those out and you'll also need to know for each one how much do you owe. Write them down and again with that, also write the interest rates, and the amount that you've been paying every month. You also need to consider why is it that you're wanting to consolidate these debts. Are you looking at taking care of some of the higher interest rates and putting those into a loan who would be going to a lower interest rate? Or are you looking at you're paying out too much every month on these payments that you're wanting to extend your debt so that you can have more manageable monthly payments? You'll also need perhaps to add some additional funding, maybe you're increasing your debt to be able to add some things to your home that are necessary such as a heating or cooling system. That's something you'll need to consider. You'll need to list all of this information down so that you'll be prepared and you'll understand yourself why and how you're wanting to consolidate your debt. Then next you'll want to consider which assets do you have, things that you own, that you could consider as using to secure a loan. Most of the time, secure loans which include automobiles, property, houses, things like that, are at a better interest rate so you'll want to consider what is it that you have that someone will give you a loan for that you can consolidate a large amount of debt into a low interest rate. You'll want to be able to contact some reputable lending institutions in particular a local bank, a savings and loan, or maybe even preferably your credit union. That way you can discuss with a loan officer what your needs are and be prepared to answer all of their questions. That's where your list of the people that you owe, the amounts that you owe, the interest rates that those are currently situated at, and then something else that you need to include is how much can you afford to pay on a monthly basis for a consolidated loan? Be prepared with all this information and be very honest, it's very important that you are honest with your loan officer so that you don't roll along preparing this consolidated debt and then find out that there's something that you haven't provided them with that's going to cause it to not occur. Now, if you're unable to secure a new loan, something to consider is look at the current loans that you may have that have a little bit of an opportunity to them that you could add some debt to. In other words, you could take a high interest credit card loan and perhaps take that amount to pay it off. Add it to a current automobile loan, again you would want to discuss that with your current loan officer, or you may have a home equity loan or a line of credit loan that you could add again sufficient amounts to pay off or consolidate smaller debts into. However you decide to consolidate your debt, please remember that you do need to be prepared and honest with the loan officers that you deal with."