Debt consolidation entails taking out one loan to pay off many others. This is often done to secure a lower interest rate, secure a fixed interest rate or for the convenience of servicing only one loan.

Debt consolidation can simply be from a number of unsecured loans into another unsecured loan, but more often it involves a secured loan against an asset that serves as collateral, most commonly a house. In this case, a mortgage is secured against the house. The collateralization of the loan allows a lower interest rate than without it, because by collateralizing, the asset owner agrees to allow the forced sale (foreclosure) of the asset to pay back the loan. The risk to the lender is reduced so the interest rate offered is lower.

Sometimes, debt consolidation companies can discount the amount of the loan. When the debtor is in danger of bankruptcy, the debt consolidator will buy the loan at a discount. A prudent debtor can shop around for consolidators who will pass along some of the savings. Consolidation can affect the ability of the debtor to discharge debts in bankruptcy, so the decision to consolidate must be weighed carefully.

Debt consolidation is often advisable in theory when someone is paying credit card debt. Credit cards can carry a much larger interest rate than even an unsecured loan from a bank. Debtors with property such as a home or car may get a lower rate through a secured loan using their property as collateral. Then the total interest and the total cash flow paid towards the debt is lower allowing the debt to be paid off sooner, incurring less interest.

Because of the theoretical advantage that debt consolidation offers a consumer that has high interest debt balances, companies can take advantage of that benefit of refinancing to charge very high fees in the debt consolidation loan. Sometimes these fees are near the state maximum for mortgage fees. In addition, some unscrupulous companies will knowingly wait until a client has backed themselves into a corner and must refinance in order to consolidate and pay off bills that they are behind on the payments. If the client does not refinance they may lose their house, so they are willing to pay any allowable fee to complete the debt consolidation. In some cases the situation is that the client does not have enough time to shop for another lender with lower fees and may not even be fully aware of them. This practice is known as predatory lending. Certainly many, if not most, debt consolidation transactions do not involve predatory lending.

Loans are usually sums of money that are lent from a person called a creditor to another person or business who becomes the debtor; before the money is made available to the borrower, they will need to sign an agreement which stipulates the repayment terms. The true definition would include, services, products or people (like staff) but for the purposes of this piece it is financial arrangements we are concerned with. The period a loan will run generally depends on the financial circumstances of the borrower but normally the longer this period, the more it will cost; this is usually in regular monthly installments.

When debts are repaid a charge is added to the sum owed called ‘interest’ which is how the lender can gain from the service he has provided. Some companies add the interest onto the repayments but make sure this is the first part to be paid so a number of monthly payments might be required before the capital repayment actually starts to be paid. Others will repay the debt in equal installment with the interest as part of this amount.

Acting as the provider is one of the principal tasks for financial institutions. A loan is a simple way for many people and businesses to have a sum of disposable money in the bank (it’s just the amounts that differ); although other money raising methods do exist.

Even small loans can be secured but this generally only happens when a person has a poor credit history which could be the case of a person buying a car; where the car becomes the security for the money lent to the borrower. To ensure that the finance company does not lose money, secured loans on cars are normally short term; usually lasting no more than 5 years, maximum.

Long term financial arrangements designed for individuals and companies to buy real estate is called a mortgage but it can only be used for this purpose. The financial institution is given security however; in this case the title to the house, until the mortgage is paid off in full. This is a much more serious type of situation and one where it is actually possible for the bank to foreclose on the loan if the borrower fails to make repayments; whilst they can reclaim money owed immediately this way, they may also decide to retain the property until a later date.

Unsecured loans are available from financial institutions under many different guises or marketing packages; credit cards, bank overdrafts and other forms of finance all fall into this category. Typically, interest rates on credit cards or store cards will be the highest but all unsecured credit rates will of course vary from one lender to the next.

There are many names for it but predatory lending is the most common; used when a company places pressure on a person to use their services in order for the company to have a financial hold on that person. Criticism of some credit card suppliers in a number of countries is also made as they issue cards to individuals at extremely high rates of interest in an underhand attempt to keep them paying off even small balances for a long period. Always remember to look carefully at the small print of any financial agreement you are about to sign.