mortagesandforeclosures

by Barbara Klein

Individual customers struggling to pay of high credit card, personal overdrafts and store cards choose to consolidate debt. Debt consolidation is nothing but the effort to pay off these numerous loans by availing of one single loan. Of course, it only works if one is able to take the loan at a considerable lower interest rate or a fix rate. It is obviously more advantageous if one has to service one loan instead of two or three loans.

In debt consolidation one can move from numerous unsecured loans to one secured loan, more often against an asset like a property that serves as the collateral. This collateral is generally the house against which the mortgage is secured. This collateralization helps in getting a lower interest. The collateral allows the owner of the house, for a foreclosure to pay the loan back. Since the risk of the lender is also reduced, the interest rate is generally on the lower side.

One gets a bad credit rating for a single missed or late payment on a credit agreement. The credit reference agencies register an adverse credit which makes any kind of borrowing difficult leading to higher monthly repayments. In this situation only a few banks may be willing to lend. That is precisely the reason why consumers choose to consolidate the debt by mortgaging the house.

There are times when these debt consolidation companies look to discount the total amount of loan, more so when they find that the individual customer is almost bankrupt. In such times the debt consolidator buys off the loan at a discount. The customer who has done his homework well could actually go shopping to see which consolidator would give him the maximum saving. However, it is prudent to weigh the decision of consolidation, as the consumer's ability to pay is seriously impaired in a bankruptcy situation.

When a customer is paying credit cards debts, consolidation works best. Since credit cards attract higher rates of interest, much higher than what a bank would charge for giving an unsecured loan. Any asset like a home or even a car that would help secure a loan, would help the customer pay the debt off at a considerable lower rate of interest.

But if personal circumstances change, then a loan against a house or a property could worsen situations. PPI or Payment Protection Insurance, if chosen, may help but on the other side it increases your monthly payouts.

Those consumers who do not take PPI should know that they run the risk of getting their property repossessed in an event when personal circumstances alter. In that case a consumer is better off looking for a debt solution other than mortgaging his house, especially if the particular person has a bad credit rating. One clearly needs to know that if someone has gone in for a loan by mortgaging the property, other debt solutions are no longer possible.

On paper, the advantage that a consumer gets from consolidating loans gets severely impacted when companies use this to charge a higher fee to refinance the loan. In some cases the fees are as high as the original mortgage fees. Certain dishonest companies wait for the consumer to get cornered so that the consumer agrees to pay this high refinance fees in order to save their property. This is called predator lending. However, there are only few companies who engage in predator lending.

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