Free Debt Consolidation Forms

February 18, 2009 by  
Filed under Debt Consolidation

You can apply for debt consolidation online for unsecured debt related to cards, personal loans or medical bills that have piled up and is now beyond your control to make the payments.

The debt consolidation company will ask you to fill out a form that has to have the following details:

Name - Your full name as appearing in your official records
Address - Complete address as appearing in your official records
City
State
Zip code
Home Phone
Work Phone
Email Address - Ensure that you fill in the right email address which is your name, @ and the domain name.

Having completed Part 1, you have to now put in details in Part 2 of the form before you can submit the application.

In Part 2, you need to make a list of all the unsecured debt that you wish to clear through this debt consolidation program. You must include medical bills, card bills, personal debt invoices, any past utility bills and unpaid taxes in this. Make sure not to add items of secured debt like mortgage, vehicle loans, present utility bills, and law related payments like alimony. The medical bills must include details of the doctor, the hospital and the medicines prescribed.

You also need to make a list of all the creditors, the amount that is outstanding, the payment schedule, the number of months you have missed making the payment and the reason for availing the loan in the first place and keep it with you before hand. This needs to be compiled for each creditor so that you can mention it on the form.

Any fresh bills in your possession should be submitted at the end. You need to only submit the previous bills along with the application. Do not forget to put your name on any fresh submissions and submit the creditor list only once.

Having made the submission, do not seek feedback on email immediately. You need to wait for at least 24 – 48 hours for the response. Any exigency can be checked via email.

Finally, one piece of advice is that, please use this facility only if you are serious about availing such a program and are very particular of settling your debt issues. The need to be transparent and provide complete and authentic information is therefore paramount. Incomplete and incorrect information is detrimental and can be rejected.

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Consolidate Your Debt For Free

February 17, 2009 by  
Filed under Debt Consolidation, Loans

You have reached a stage of frustration and are finding it difficult to live under the burden of debt. Why not get out of it through debt consolidation? That is cumbersome and involves dealing with yet another agency. So why not do it yourself?

Yes, you can provided you have a plan and through this, you can put aside much needed money through reduced interest and come out free from debt.

Here are some tips to go about it:

1) Commit to yourself that there will be no further debt and get rid of the cards to start with. No cards mean no indiscriminate expenses and no unnecessary debt.
2) Make a list of all debt in an excel sheet and it should have the following:

a) Name of the lender
b) Current principal liability
c) The minimum payment due
d) The rate of interest
e) Contact numbers
f) Email and website

If you have any credit open, make a mention of that also. It will come in handy.

3) The next step is to commence checking with each of the card companies about their balance transfer offers. Make sure to tell them that you would shift the account if you happen to get a good offer.

4) Make sure that you maintain notes of any offer on the excel sheet and also check for any hidden clauses. Ensure that you verify delayed payment charges and the tenure of the low interest rates.
5) You need to be alert about a popular marketing plan to entice members with a low rate for the transferred balance with a commitment for a minimum amount every billing cycle. Any outstanding on this is charged at a higher rate, which is fine on the face of it but can be costly if you do not pay off your transferred balance. This is because the card company will levy the lower interest rate first on the transferred balance and not on the other one. This will continue till the balance is settled.

Now you need to choose the best offer and transfer all balances to this card. If you fall short, do not hesitate to ask for an increase in the credit limit. If that is also not provided, take the next best offer.

Make a note of when the special offer ends so that you are able to clear your balance transfers. This way you will not have more than 2 cards and will be able to manage your finances far better.

Most finance advisors would be of the opinion that you need to close the non functional accounts, but it is better to keep them for any major exigency that you might face in future. Just have the discipline to not use them. This way your credit rating will not suffer and you have the option of falling back on these accounts. This advice comes with a caveat that if you are unsure of your spending discipline, then you need to close them with immediate effect.

Do not make the mistake of mixing up the credit card debt with real estate collateral. Failure to pay will risk your house getting repossessed.

Follow the above steps and be your own master finance advisor.

Commercial Debt Consolidation

February 15, 2009 by  
Filed under Debt Consolidation

It is indeed a very tough question on how does one go about disbursing the debts or settling one’s loan. Can settling or disbursing the loan really help in solving the problems. Does this seem very weird to you? In every nook and corner of the world there are people to take debts. Everyone is facing the problem of how to settle their debts. There are many financial companies which offer commercial debt consolidation services so as to prevent individuals from falling in this trap. They help the borrowers who are passing through this difficult phase of loan disbursement.

Let us now take a look at the various options of commercial debt consolidation services

How to manage debt loans: it is an ongoing trend where many financial institutions are offered services relating to debt management. They take refuge under the heading “Debt consolidation”. The loans offered by these financial institutions and debt consolidation companies enable the debtors to pay off their loans and debts. Many of these debtors go in for a loan to pay off the old loan. This is a universally known fact and it may also appear very vague to you that people take fresh loans to pay off the already existing loans.

Now all this can be managed very effectively and efficiently if we follow certain steps. All this depends to a great extent on how you go about the entire process. The debt management companies are more or less responsible for effectively carrying out this procedure, with regards to the disbursing of your debts.

Commercial Debt consolidation services mainly aims at helping the borrowers to settle their debts efficiently. They chalk out a workable plan enabling the debtors to settle their debts, without any major grievances and difficulties. The industry is flooded with many debt disbursement counselors ready to help debtors effectively settle their debts. They also chalk out the best way of debt consolidation for the borrowers.

With the progress in the field of science and technology as well as computers, internet is an absolute boon to the people. It is the in thing. One can get full knowledge of the various debt consolidation services available in the market. Debtors just have to fill in the online form on the net and wait for the debt consolidation providers to help you with the right way of debt consolidation.

These debt consolidation services providers help the debtors in effectively disbursing the loans. The borrowers also find the method of payment chalked out for them quite easy to handle as well as stress free.

They help the debtors by drawing out an effective plan for debt disbursement. The debtors thus have a healthy financial positive to view without much of a headache. They are thus saved from the ill effects of debt disbursement.

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Debt Consolidation and Bankruptcy

February 15, 2009 by  
Filed under Bankruptcy, Debt Consolidation

When faced with a crisis, it is easy to throw in the towel and run away. The true test of character comes when you withstand the hardship and seek to resolve the issues rather than taking an escapist approach. Similarly, mounting debt and other burdens may be sapping you mentally, but instead of opting for bankruptcy and trying to be escapist, you must look for other options that can get you out of the mess.

This is important because what appears as a solution to your problems may be worse than the problem, in this case filing for bankruptcy will come back to haunt you in the future through bad credit rating and the fact that no creditor will advance any loan for the next 2 years is another negative. Hence bankruptcy should be the very last option and you must actively look at everything else to arrive at a solution.

Debt Consolidation Agency

That solution could be in the form of a debt consolidation body that can help you decrease your burden and get you out of the bankruptcy mode. The agency will allot you a counselor who has many years of experience in dealing with creditors. He will first discuss with you and get an idea of your assets and liabilities apart from details of your occupation. You will be required to submit proofs to support these facts.

He will now suggest a program which would be tailored to take care of your debt and if suitable to you would set up a meeting with your creditors to work out the new repayment schedule. The debt consolidation person will be able to reduce the interest rate as well as the monthly payment through extending the payment tenure. In some cases, borrowers have benefited by up to 70%.

Debt Repayment

After getting the creditors sanction on the new repayment schedule, you will be required to adhere to the schedule. This is a function of the terms the counselor has been able to negotiate with the creditors. Sometimes you may be required to make an application for a loan and this would be used to clear the existing debt. In future, you only need to start repaying this loan. You may also get this facility from the agency itself and they would then start collecting this repayment on a monthly basis from you. Your single point of contact will henceforth be the agency. You must however take care that you do not default on any payment that is due every month.

As you can see, all is not lost and you need not consider bankruptcy when you have an option like debt consolidation at your behest. It will certainly help you come out of the problem and is a far better option than filing for bankruptcy.

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Debt Consolidation Help

February 14, 2009 by  
Filed under Debt Consolidation, Loans

While a loan taken through the debt consolidation route is very useful, it is necessary to be aware of the pros and cons of such an arrangement before venturing into it.

The debt consolidation arrangement works by merging multiple loans into one and involves repayment over a longer tenure. Consequently, the monthly payment is lower and places some cash in the hand of the borrower.

An example is when you have 2 loans, where the monthly payments are $50 each. You are therefore paying $100 per month. Through debt consolidation, the new creditor will take on the loans and give you one bill for about $50, which saves you $50 per month. In this arrangement, you have reduced your monthly payment to pay the amount outstanding over a longer period. If you had continued paying the individual outstanding at the current monthly payment, you would have settled the outstanding sooner.

Debt consolidation offers other options like student loans where multiple student debt can get combined into one and mitigate the hardship faced by the students in making high monthly payments. Inflation and costlier academics compel students to take multiple loans and it can become very difficult for them to repay. Debt consolidation, by its definition makes it easier for the students to repay by reducing the ticket size on the monthly commitments.

Many card members face a similar situation with the accumulation of debt on multiple card accounts. They can also opt for a consolidation debt where the monthly payment is again reduced and the creditor is a single entity. By utilizing the saving resulting out of this into repayment, the member can decrease the total debt against his name and hope to clear the entire debt sooner than later. Care must be taken by the member that he does not continue splurging on his card while this arrangement is in force. It will only make the situation worse.

The above benefits seem good but one has to be aware of the negative aspects of debt consolidation as well. They can send wrong signals to the lenders about the financial strength of the borrower. Other lenders may want strong security collateral before they advance any loan. Of course, this demand depends upon the overall credit rating as well as the loan amount sought by the borrower.

It is important for prospective borrowers to do some study on the various programs available in the market and the benefits of each before signing up. It is equally imperative to be aware of the hidden clauses to avoid getting into a worse soup.

Finally, it is important to recognize that any debt put off only provides temporary relief and the amount has to be settled ultimately.

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Debt Consolidation Companies

February 13, 2009 by  
Filed under Debt Consolidation

The idea of using a debt consolidation company is good when you have accumulated a lot of debt from multiple creditors and are struggling to make payments. They help you tide over this problem and offer repayment programs mainly for unsecured loans. These companies act as intermediary between you and the creditors and work out a repayment plan for you. They make their money on a fee ranging from 9% to 12%.

It is better to approach them only for unsecured loans as placing collateral like a car or real estate could be dangerous leading to repossession, if you default.

Some suggestions on how to choose an agency:

  • As with most issues related to finance, you need to do your due diligence and research companies and their offers before signing up. Many debt consolidation companies are increasingly resorting to false and malicious claims of freeing you from debt. You need to be aware and not fall prey to such agencies. Sign up only with reputed agencies and meet up with a representative to understand their thought process and how they can help you.
  • Verify if the agency you have short listed has the right to operate and whether they are members of the BBB. Call the company number to see if they are available through the day. Also check if they can provide any referrals and speak to that person to ascertain the agency performance.
  • Contact a reputed financial expert to take his assistance and guidance for your monetary problems. He may also put you in touch with a good agency and can work out a good deal for you.
  • You can talk to your creditors yourself and work out a decreased rate of interest by yourself also. Attempt to settle the high cost ticket items and follow the descending route to settle debts. Ensure you try and clear all unsecured debt like card, medical and other personal debt as they are the high interest bearing ones and can bleed you.

The reason why APR is high for unsecured loans is because they are not backed by strong collateral and this compels the agencies to charge high rate of interest. Once you settle your unsecured loans, you can start with the secured loans. Here, since you can offer strong collateral, you can get much lower rate of interest and save money.

Getting out of debt is not difficult with some discipline and smart negotiation from you. The selection of a debt consolidation agency is an important step. If the offers are too good to be true, you need to be wary and double check.

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Unsecured Debt Consolidation

February 12, 2009 by  
Filed under Debt Consolidation

The current financial crises and global meltdown has taken a heavy toll and it is a gloomy picture. The recession appears to be a long drawn one and job loss claims are on the rise every week. More and more businesses and financial institutions are declaring insolvency and seeking bailouts from the government. Many people who took mortgage loans in the boom time are now struggling to make the monthly payments due to job losses and no other source of income. They are finding it difficult to retain their house and are facing tough times. If you are one of the unlucky ones and have delayed your monthly repayment, due to the above mentioned issues or increase in the floating rate of interest, then you can adopt some measures that will enable you to keep your house and avoid foreclosure.

First and foremost, you must request your lender for some assistance to bear with you for some time, if you feel you are in danger of defaulting. Very often, people do not seek this help out of embarrassment and have to face the law with orders to foreclose.

By forewarning your lender and seeking help, you are enabling him to respond to your plea and it will be easier for him to contemplate assistance. He will be able to arrange for modification of the loan before any credit downgrade occurs and your report suffers. Seeking help in advance is far better than doing it at the 60th or 90th day when action from the law is just some days away.

There are agencies that will approach the lenders for modification of loans, if you are embarrassed to do it yourself. They do it for a fee of course. You can do a study of such agencies and discuss your expectations with them. Please ensure that you take their offer in writing and request them to give you a detailed explanation of their services. This will make sure you are able to hold them to the commitments they made while selling you the service.

If , by any chance you have delayed this action and the law is almost onto you, do not lose hope. You can still retain your house by opting for a loan modification that will enable you to foreclose. Your lender may add the outstanding amount to the loan and you must sit with him to work out an acceptable monthly payment schedule. You can ask for a fixed rate of interest.

You must recognize that it is in the interest of financial institutions to help borrowers retain their assets and hence they will be eager to assist. It is just a question of asking them at the right time and negotiating a workable option.

Tough times do demand extraordinary measures and one must take those measures to retain something that one has worked hard to acquire.

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Construction Loan Consolidation

February 10, 2009 by  
Filed under Loans

It is always a dream to own your house and all of us spend a better part of our life trying to conjure up the necessary funds to be able to do so. The positive aspect of this is nowadays, you have institutions willing to lend you money to build your house and fulfill that dream sooner than later. If you can zero in on a good deal for construction loan consolidation from a reputed institution, you will be able to rest easy. The trick is to find the right one for your needs from the plethora of options available. Here are a few suggestions:

You need to start off with identifying how much finance your lender will assist you with. This will give you an idea of your total expenditure for your house including the other costs for utilities and other sundry expenses associated with the finance arrangement. Having a good idea of the amount prepares you in advance of what to expect.

The next challenge is to engage professionals for the design and actual construction of your house. The architect will cater to your requirements in planning the layout and any other features you may want to incorporate, while the construction contractor will give you his take on the expenses likely for the construction. You now need to sit with these inputs and decide whether you will be able to afford the said expenditure. Obviously, if it is far more than your initial budget, you will need to reassess the plan and cut out some elements to fit into the budget. Once you finalize, you need to discuss your requirement with the lender and hand over the plans. The lender will need to give you an approval of these plans before processing your actual finance amount. This is the preapproval stage of the loan disbursement process.

It is advisable to be aware of the different construction loan consolidation options available and you should take a loan which can be converted to a permanent one. This will lead to some savings and the process in future will be an easier one due to the same lender giving you the benefit.
Home loan lenders normally insist on an upfront payment of 10% of the amount to be paid. You can avoid PMI by paying 20% initially or by taking multiple loans, wherein the first one is for 75% and the second one is for the balance 25%.
Finally, if you desire to convert your loan to a permanent one, be sure to check out the prevalent rates of interest to enable you to decide as to what would be ideal – a fixed one or a floating one. Other options allow you to have some surplus cash which you can use at your convenience.

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Online Debt Consolidation

February 9, 2009 by  
Filed under Debt Consolidation

A lot of people are fighting a daily battle to make ends meet. Some of them are under the mistaken belief that they are good at finance management and will be able to comfortably meet the growing expenditure. They do not realize that very often earning has not kept pace with the ever increasing expenses till it is too late to do much about it. Increasing and easy disposal incomes, easy access to cheap money through low interest rates, global consumerism and irresponsible usage of plastic money due to the fact that one can use the credit card for almost everything has led to debt getting piled up. They find it difficult to settle bills and this puts them under tremendous stress. A possible solution could be debt consolidation which may provide relief from all the anxiety and harsh calls from the creditors.

This option enables the facility to merge several payments into one entity at an interest rate far lower which results in the monthly repayment getting slashed. Since only a single payment is to be made on a monthly basis, the finance management becomes easy and with only one creditor to manage, one can be liberated from the irritating phone calls and mails,

Those not adept at handling their money prudently, fall into the trap of high debt caused mainly due to inability to service current debt, delayed payment levies. They need to become aware that they have a problem at hand at the earliest. Debt compounds an existing problem when you borrow and you are unable to repay it on time. This leads to the interest amount piling up in tandem with the principal. Faced with such a dilemma, it is better to consult a finance expert. This expert can guide one to initiate a debt management plan at the earliest which can result in savings as well as improvement in the credit rating. A weak credit rating could severely impact your chances of borrowing in future.

A debt consolidation program has two components:

a) Methodology to get out of debt.
b) Encouragement through the ease of repaying to one creditor.

Since this single monthly repayment to one creditor is much lesser than the multiple payments one would have made to the original creditors, the money saved enables one to make a greater contribution to the principal of the original debt rather than continuing to pay interest. A debt consolidation plan therefore assists one to get freedom from debt sooner.

Debt consolidation home loans enables one to offer one’s house as strong collateral and get higher loan amounts as well as lower rate of interest since the collateral is a secured one. The rates are higher on an unsecured one where there is no collateral.

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What is Debt Consolidation

February 8, 2009 by  
Filed under Debt Consolidation

When one is in deep debt and the burden reaches a point of exasperation and tension, it is better to opt for an innovative financial instrument called debt consolidation. Very often the current loan is unstructured and involves high monthly payouts due to increased interest rates. With debt consolidation, the burden of two or more loans is merged into one single entity and that assumes the form of a personal debt. This form of consolidation typically results in a lower interest payment allowing you to save money on a monthly basis. The new structure also enforces discipline and a tight repayment schedule to enable you to settle the debt at the earliest.

You can connect into such a plan through an agency or through a classified consultant. Once you meet up with a qualified debt advisor, you will be able to arrive at a decision as to which is the best option for you. Under the debt consolidation plan, three options varying with the requirements of an individual exist – loan consolidation, loan management and the filing of bankruptcy.

Under the debt or loan management option, the consolidator will take on the burden from you and enter into a separate repayment arrangement with the lender based on their own credit rating. Typically, they already have existing ongoing relationships with these lenders like card companies, other collection agencies etc and are thus in a better position to negotiate terms. You benefit since the interest rates are always on the lower side as opposed to the one you are being levied and this results in significant monthly savings besides having to deal with only one creditor. Management of the debt is thus far simpler and tenable.

You need to be aware though that having entered into such an arrangement, you cannot operate any of your cards barring one for any exigencies. The positive feature is that you will not be troubled by the different creditors and need to deal with only one, making sure that you do not fall back on the repayment schedule agreed upon.

You need to read the fine print of the arrangement and make sure that the new debt tenure is not an extended one, as that will mean that you end up paying far more. Moreover, do not offer your house as collateral. It can be repossessed in the event of any default from your side.

The repayment schedules are normally agreed upon for tenure of 5 – 7 years. Unfortunately, even this schedule is not always maintained and adhered to due to changing economic conditions and bad after sales service.

You can look forward to a commission which would be approximately equal to the first monthly payment under the new plan. There is a component of administration fee that also needs to be paid. This could be a flat charge or a percentage.

To sum up, a loan consolidation plan works well for people struggling with interest rate payment of over 18% or are into the credit card trap.

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