Internet's first get-out-of-debt community - 168,000 members

Welcome to Internet's first get-out-of-debt community. Our community members and consultants offer free debt advice on debt consolidation, debt settlement, bill consolidation, debt consolidation loans, dealing with payday loans and collection agencies. They try to make your life debt free in an organized manner. Take advantage of a free debt counseling session and bail yourself out of the stressful situation.

Is debt consolidation good?

Debt consolidation program is a good option for those looking to pay off debt in order to lead a tension-free life. It offers a number of benefits and helps you save thousands of dollars. Just check out 8 benefits of consolidating your bills before you go for it.

8 benefits: A debt consolidation program helps you to pay off debt within a period of 4-6 years. This is possible as you're offered an affordable payment plan approved by your creditors. While you make monthly payments to a consolidation company/law firm, they distribute your payment to individual creditors. Thus, when you consolidate bills, you don't need to deal with different creditors.

Debt consolidation or bill consolidation (loan consolidation) helps to waive off or reduce penalties and accrued interest on your bills. Use debt calculators to work out how much you'll save by loan consolidation.

6 ways to pay off debt

Debt consolidation program is no doubt one of the smart ways to pay off debt. However, there are 6 other options to help you manage your bills and pay off debt.

• Self repayment plan: This is an option where you don't need professional debt assistance. You can pay off debt on your own. All you have to do is, assess your financial situation, prepare a budget and follow a repayment plan accordingly. Budgeting helps you to avoid overspending and increases savings or free money to pay off debt.
• Debt management: This is a debt assistance program which allows you to deposit money with a credit counseling agency. The agency then uses this deposit to pay off your bills according to a payment plan negotiated with your creditors. When you're into a debt management plan (DMP), chances are that your creditors may lower interest rate and waive off certain fees. The best thing is, you can pay back your bills in a comparatively short time.
• Debt settlement: It's a process through which you can pay off debt by taking help of settlement companies. These companies negotiate with creditors thereby reducing your outstanding balance by 40%-60%. Once you settle the dues, you can save good amount of dollars as you don't need to pay the entire balance.
• Debt consolidation loans: This is a kind of personal loan with which you can consolidate your dues (credit cards, medical bills and unsecured loans) into a single payment. That is, you pay off debts using a single loan. Then you'll have to make a single payment each month in order to pay back the consolidation loan. This helps in paying off debts without having to deal with several creditors at a time.
• Bill consolidation: This is helpful especially when you need to consolidate bills. This is similar to loan consolidation wherein a bill consolidation company negotiates for reduction in interest rates so that you can pay off debt. It helps to consolidate your dues into a single easy payment each month thereby reducing your financial burden.
• Bankruptcy: Apart from debt consolidation or settlement, bankruptcy is another option to help you get rid of your dues. As a consumer, you can file either Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy depending upon which type will suit you and which one you'll qualify for. However, it is best to avoid bankruptcy because it ruins your credit history and does not help you to write off all your dues.

How our community helps you

Top rated articles to help you lead a debt-free life

• 7 steps to become debt free: If you're in financial crisis and don't know how to pay off debts, have a straight talk with your creditors. Prioritize your bills and prepare a budget for your expenses. Check out 7 steps on how to pay off debt and make your life tension-free. If required, take advantage of professional debt consolidation services in order to pay off debt.
• Debt relief: You can successfully pay off debt and get relief if you're able to choose the right debt assistance program that suits your situation. You need to explore various ways and make use of the pay off debt option which will give you quick relief from the burden of monthly payments to your creditors.
• Credit card debt consolidation: This is one way of consolidating your credit cards in order to pay them off easily. Credit card debt consolidation helps you to take advantage of reduced rates of interest which lower your monthly payment.
• Christian debt consolidation: This is similar to debt consolidation services except that it involves Christian values while helping you to pay off debt. Christian consolidation companies are non-profit organizations that help you consolidate multiple bills into one easy payment.
• 30 sample letters: Here you'll find a list of 30 sample letters to creditors or collection agencies. Usually credit bureaus and collection agencies do not accept letters in an improper format. So, make sure that you use the right format in your letter and don't miss out any relevant information.

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