To Consolidate or Not

At times, it can be extremely tempting to consolidate all of your debt into one, convenient payment. Let's look at some pros and cons

PROS

* Instead of having multiple payments to juggle and figure out which one gets paid at which time, when you consolidate, you will have a single payment to be made at one place.
* You know how much interest you are paying each month because it is all in one convenient location.
*Having everything in one place will show you immediate progress toward the whole.

CONS
* Depending on the interest rate that you get for your consolidation, you may end up paying more for everything in the long run.
* Once you have consolidated, it is much more difficult to get the interest rate lowered.
* The intimidation of one monthly lump sum may seem a bit unsettling at first.

I was fortunate the first time through (you will recall that I have been saddled with debt many times in my life) that I was able to secure a personal loan at my credit union. My father was kind enough to cosign for me and I was able to get a low rate with a decent monthly payment. It was certainly lower interest rate than I was paying combined on my credit cards. If you have someone who can cosign for you, a personal loan might be a good thing for you (but I am not in the position to offer you loan advice).

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