Is Consolidating Loans Right For You?

Consolidating loans makes sense but only if you can pay a lower interest rate than what you're paying now. This is especially true if you are consolidating mortgage loans. Be aware of your total overall costs to avoid getting deeper in debt than when you started. Have you ever asked yourself why should I consolidate my bills? The simple answer is to reduce your monthly payments and save thousands in interest costs. Here are a couple of things to consider if you want to see if consolidating loans will benefit you. No matter what kind of loan you shop for get very lowest interest rate possible. You always want to pay off a consolidating loan in shortest amount of time to avoid getting deeper in debt. Plan to pay off all of your debts in three to five years starting with highest interest rate debt first. Here are some of best ways for consolidating loans. Credit Cards Many low rate credit cards offer you a lower rate than a standard debt consolidation loan. Just be sure to get a no fee card for transferring new balances. By transferring a higher interest credit card debt to a lower rate card, you can pay more towards principal of your debt and pay it off quicker. Consolidating loans always makes sense if you can lower your interest on your debt. Debt Consolidation Loan A debt consolidation loan is another good option for consolidating loans. Just shop for an interest rate that is reasonable. The repayment terms should only be three to five years not ten or fifteen years so you don't pay thousands of dollars in interest. Calculate total cost of loan from start to finish to see if this kind of loan makes sense for you.

10 Dirty Tricks Credit Card Companies Play

The credit card companies make billions each year in legitimate interest charges and fees, but are under constant pressure from shareholders to increase their earnings. To make this extra money credit card companies sometime adopt some dirty tricks to make this money. As credit card industry becomes more competative, less money is being earned from each client from interest charges and number of these dirty tricks increase. To protect yourself against these unscrupulous procedures that steal your money we will list 10 dirty tricks credit card companies play to their clients so you’ll know what to expect and look out for. Of course that there are not only 10 dirty tricks credit card companies play to their clients but knowing at least these 10 tricks will help you to not be a victim.

The first one out of 10 dirty tricks credit card companies play is also worst of them: not posting your payment day it was received. This is oldest known trick: company receives your payment in time but it doesn’t process it immediately; this delay will bring to company a late payment fee. This is often due to legitimate reasons, but policies of many credit card companies support a processing time that is not beneficial to you. A second trick is to make you pay late by changing due date for your credit card payment. For being late company will charge again a late payment fee and if situation repeats for few months in a row they can legally increase your interest rate. The third trick played by credit card companies is a ridiculous one: you can be charged a penalty fee for not using your credit card a certain period of time. As unbelievable as it might seem, this is a new tactic of credit card companies to take your money. Another two tricks used are in connection with client’s peace of mind. Both of them are connected with credit card protection and fees that must be paid. One of them is protecting you in case your credit card is stolen, lost or used fraudulently. Almost all credit card companies do not charge a fee for this service, but there are others that do. The best thing you can do would be to avoid latter ones. The second credit card protection fee is for protecting you in case you loose your job or die. For this protection, usually, fees are too high for benefit received, but many customers purchase it out of fear.