http://www.credit-card-counseling.net/credit-consolidation/bad-credit-consolidation/ Bad credit consolidation can help you get out of debt and back on the road to debt freedom. Learn more about bad credit consolidation here. en-us Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:00:00 EDT Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:00:00 EDT Weblog Editor 2.0 If you have less-than-stellar credit, you might think your situation is hopeless. Ten or fifteen years ago, you may have been close to being right. But in the last ten years or so, a whole new industry has cropped up to help people get out of debt. At the core of most of these programs is credit consolidation. There's even help for those with bad credit, and it's called bad credit consolidation. The Benefits of Bad Credit Consolidation To fully understand the benefits of bad credit consolidation, you must first understand credit consolidation itself, which involves negotiation to get your unsecured debt balances and interest rates lowered. Then the new, lower balances are combined, and you make one monthly payment to the debt consolidation company, which they distribute among your creditors. Because of the reductions, you can become debt free in about five years. Bad credit consolidation works in exactly the same way. But there are more benefits that will affect you more directly. For example, if you have bad credit, chances are you've missed payments or you have late payments, and your creditors are calling you and sending you harassing mail. And if you've had late payments, or if you've ever exceeded the limits of your credit cards, you've probably been hit with late fees and over-the-limit fees. But once you enroll in a bad credit consolidation program, those calls and all that mail will stop. And as part of the negotiation process, those fees may even get removed. That might not sound like a lot, but at $20-$30 a pop, they can add up fast. Couple those with finance charges, and your required monthly minimum will never touch the amount you really owe. Besides, credit card companies made $7.7 billion in late fees in 2003 alone. They don't need your late fees, right? One other benefit--and this is huge--is that once some of your creditors have received a few consistent, on-time payments, they might report your accounts as current instead of delinquent. What a huge boon for your credit report! If you're ready to get started on a bad credit consolidation program, browse our Related Resources page to find a debt management company to help. In addition to bad credit consolidation programs, they also offer programs like a credit consolidation loan, debt settlement student loan debt consolidation and more. Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:00:00 EDT