While debt may be inevitable in the course of financial development, when debt spins out of control or one finds oneself relishing in consumer debt then a corrective action may be needed. This has been the case for many individuals since the downtown of financial markets world over. There are two main perspectives on how to address the existing debt concerns of any individual; consolidating and settling your debts and managing your debts sometimes through a bonafide credit counselling scheme. Debt settlement and use of bad credit consolidation loans is usually the easiest yet less advisable move as opposed to debt management, credit counselling or debt consolidation in general.
Is there need for debt management?
The definite answer is a yes. Most personal financial problems are better solved in the long run by identifying the single most contributing factor(s) and rooting them out of your lifestyle. By taking to address your current concerns your ability to avoid out of control costs in the long run may prove better than taking more loans to help you consolidate your debts. Thus, the strategies used by debt management or credit counselling agencies are to rewire your financial habits to be in tandem with your debt obligations. Any improvement in your financial habit may be used to bargain for lower interest rates that will accelerate your debt elimination programs.
Determining dangerous levels of debt
How would one know that debt levels are a threat to your financial life? How much debt is too much is determined by a debt ratio which is a comparative analysis of one’s total debts and assets. In a situation where the assets cannot be clearly ascertained or measured, then a debt to income ratio will be used. The current value of all your debts are added up and divided by your income. To decrease the risk of bankruptcy, an individual should focus on attaining smaller ration. Smaller ratios will also grant you low interest rates of fresh loans and continuing loans on bargain.
Common debt management techniques
Budgeting is by far still the best debt management plan even for individuals that may not require professional help. The budget should incorporate both debt payoff and savings yet without severing your survival expenditures. Professional help may be sought in the form of credit counselling. Counsellors help an individual establish a debt management plan either through budget, debt management schemes or methods that have been tailor made for an individual. That is, after establishing the weak points in your spending habits, counselling may be used to developed debt relief method for an individual. Falling even further on credit can cause more damage to ones finances, budget and most importantly the credit report. Debt management puts priority on elimination of the more damaging debts fast. The most damaging debts may be those with higher interest rates leading to increased burdens through the interests charged, the recurrent debts or debts that have taken longer than expected to eliminate.
Advantages of debt management over settlement
While debt settlement agencies may help fend off the harassing calls from irate lenders, rarely do they undertake to settle off all your debts, often paying off between 40 to 60 percent. It is just a way of transferring debt and you have to come up with a real solution to pay it off in the long run. Debt settlement companies will also charge you fees. Settlement agencies are also similar in behavior to the original creditors to begin with. After consolidating and paying off your debts, they will open escrow accounts which are used to manage your remittances. If you fall back, you may invariably find yourself still subjected to the harassing or ruthless debt collection processes.
How different is a debt management company then? To begin with, debt managers are often held with respect from the fact that being in a debt management plans alone may improve your FICO scores. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada or FCAC in short often recommends consumers who need financial counselling to opt for debt management as they have high success rates in negotiating for waiver or reduction of late fees on any debtor’s account as well as reduction of interest rates. Fees for debt managers are usually comparatively low than using bad credit consolidation loans that may prove costly in the long run.
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