Debt Consolidation

Yesterday I talked about finding the service, “LowerMyBills.com.” After contacting the website, I was contacted by four debt consolidation (mortgage) brokers. The path I chose was to leverage the equity in my house to fix my interest rate and lower the average interest rate I was paying per credit card. I picked one of the four brokers who had a plan that I liked. Key things I was looking for were: 1) Fixed rate 2) 2nd mortgage, not an equity line (although there is nothing wrong with an equity line of credit) 3) Low rate (2nd mortgage rates are higher typically) 4) 15 or 30 year 5) Minimal closing costs 6) No origination point or discount points I got a deal with Citibank, which is ironically one of the credit cards I shut down while consolidating the business debt. Citi had a deal with a low interest rate, fixed 30 year mortgage, no closing costs – not even the appraisal. I closed in two weeks. The closing notary came to my office and I closed right there. My checks were overnighted 5 days later (3 days right of rescission). My cards are paid off, the debt is one payment (about $400 dollars less a month worth of payments). I can pay $400 more in principle if I want to. I lowered my average interest rate by about 4% -5%, which is considerable. While having a second mortgage is not ideal, it was the best choice for me. I really did “lower my bills” and now I can concentrate on paying off the second mortgage and can do so faster. I had several things in my favor. I never was late on a payment, so my credit rating was excellent. This got me the good rate primarily. It was imperative that I get rid of the credit card debt for several reasons. A few of them you may not be aware of. I will talk about that next time. You will learn to hate credit card debt as much as I do after you learn what the credit companies can do to you. I feel your pain, Mad about Debt