topic Re: Debt consolidation in Personal Finance

Debt consolidation

LubiLu — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 01:41:13 GMT

A friend maxed his credit cards to the tune of $30000. He's thinking of debt consolidation.Is that the best move? Any advice will be appreciated.

Re: Debt consolidation

elim — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 02:04:40 GMT

BT to 0% is the best move, but with maxed out cards, I doubt either is possible (due to score crash).

Re: Debt consolidation

SouthJamaica — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 02:11:08 GMT

@LubiLu wrote:
A friend maxed his credit cards to the tune of $30000. He's thinking of debt consolidation.Is that the best move? Any advice will be appreciated.

No it's the worst move he can make because he will then wind up enthralled to a predatory lender on very onerous credit terms.

He should just bite the bullet, stop using his cards, cut his spending, and do the hard work of paying the cards down

One proven method that works well for someone like him:

-pay minimum + $5 on all of the largest balances

-apply all other available money towards the smallest balance until it's down to zero, and keep it at zero

-then tackle next smallest balance

Re: Debt consolidation

Revelate — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 17:33:15 GMT

@SouthJamaica wrote:
@LubiLu wrote:
A friend maxed his credit cards to the tune of $30000. He's thinking of debt consolidation.Is that the best move? Any advice will be appreciated.
No it's the worst move he can make because he will then wind up enthralled to a predatory lender on very onerous credit terms.

He should just bite the bullet, stop using his cards, cut his spending, and do the hard work of paying the cards down

One proven method that works well for someone like him:
-pay minimum + $5 on all of the largest balances
-apply all other available money towards the smallest balance until it's down to zero, and keep it at zero
-then tackle next smallest balance

Not all lenders suck.

Stop in to a local credit union or two and at least ask if they're willing to play ball at least, typical CC APR's of ~20% aren't that difficult to beat.