Folks who are a little nervous about their current financial situation, which has perhaps been exacerbated by these recessionary times, may be wondering if debt consolidation would benefit them. Consider this: Borrowing a lump sum of cash from a debt-relief agency to pay off a number of creditors, narrowing the field to one payment for one creditor, cannot spell anything but relief – both personally and financially. However, there are three important scenarios to consider when opting for a debt consolidation solution. The gist being that what must go up will first go down. First, your credit score will take an initial hit from your streamlining efforts. Second, you must remain steady in your payments to the debt-consolidation vendor. Third, you have to reconfigure your spending habits if you want to retain the benefits of debt consolidation. Scenario One – The Big Hit As you assume your debt consolidation plan, you will be negotiating with each of your specific vendors about closing your accounts out for once and for all. What you are doing is essentially giving the boot to a number of open lines of credit at one time. Credit assessors view this sort of activity as somewhat abnormal
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