Debt Consolidation - How to Know if I Am Eligible or Not?

Debt consolidation is not for everyone, there are some debt situations that should not be solved via a debt consolidation program because the benefits that debt consolidation provides are not applicable to every form of debt. Learn how to find out whether you will be able to take advantage of a debt consolidation program or not.

Before contacting a debt consolidation agency you need to make sure that by consolidating your debt you will be improving your financial situation. Otherwise you will need to resort to other forms of credit and debt repair. Since debt consolidation is mainly based on debt negotiation, you have to make sure that the type of debt you have is suitable for this method of debt reduction.

Pre-Payable Debt And Negotiable Debt

In order to be suitable for consolidation debt has to be susceptible of being prepaid and negotiated. This is an important issue because if your debt does not have either of these characteristics, you will not be able to obtain any benefit from a debt consolidation program. Let’s analyze these factors separately first.

When you prepay your debt, you are modifying the repayment schedule by paying part or the full amount of the money owed in advance. According to the contract, debt can assume three forms when it comes to prepaying: Prepaying can be authorized either explicitly or implicitly (if the contract says nothing about the issue), prepaying can be authorized but penalized with a prepaying penalty fee or prepaying can be forbidden. If prepaying your debt is forbidden the only form of debt consolidation available is negotiation and resorting to a debt consolidation loan is not feasible. If there are penalty fees, you need to ponder the fees in order to see if consolidation would be to your advantage or not (you may end up paying even more).

By negotiating your debt, you agree with your creditors new terms for repaying your loans and other forms of debt. Not all debts are negotiable and non-negotiable debt cannot be consolidated unless you can repay the debt in full (by means of a debt consolidation loan). Generally speaking, secure debt is non negotiable. This is due to the fact that since secured debt provides the lender with a real estate guarantee, he can always recover his money through legal means knowing that his money is protected with the property used as collateral.

Consequences Of Both Characteristics

If your debt is mainly composed of either of these types of debt or worst, a combination of both, chances are that consolidating your debt will became undoable. Non-negotiable debt can be consolidated via a debt consolidation loan (which implies repaying your debt and taking new debt under different terms) if debt is pre-payable. Non pre-payable debt can only be consolidated through debt negotiation as long as it negotiable.

Any non-negotiable and non pre-payable debt becomes an inevitable obstacle against debt consolidation. If a high proportion of your debt falls into this category you will need to consider other options because debt consolidation is not for you. Otherwise, you can both consolidate through debt negotiation or debt consolidation loans and you will be able to reduce your debt and monthly payments.