Debt. It’s something we are reading and hearing about more often every day that goes by. With the UK’s debt currently over £1,430bn it is hardly a surprise that more of us are feeling the squeeze and are in need of help.

Did you know that, excluding mortgages, the average household in the United Kingdom is in debt to the extent of £9000 - £12,000? And to make the fact even harder to swallow, more and more people in Britain are getting into serious debt every day.

Debt consolidation was, for a long time, seen as a desperate last resort and was generally frowned upon. This attitude is changing, with people beginning to realise that the sooner you decide to bit the bullet and consolidate the sooner you can get on your way to be debt free and stead on your feet again.

With modern culture’s use of media on TV, the internet and pretty much every public place you see offering “buy now, pay later”, loans, credit cards and similar products it should not be a surprise that the personal debt of people in the United Kingdom goes up by approximately £1 Million a minute! And with the stomach wrenching feeling of having another brown envelope hit the door mat or ignoring the ringing phone in case it is somebody demanding payments being all too familiar to many people in Great Britain, debt consolidation is thankfully an option you can take to help you sort your financial problems, and your life, out.

In layman’s terms, debt consolidation means you contact all of the companies that you owe money to and request a settlement figure. Collect these together and calculate the full amount. You would then apply for a loan from whoever is offering the best rate, and pay back your debts, in full, with this amount. You then only have one, although significantly larger, monthly repayment to take care of. This is obviously much more manageable and easy to keep track of.

However, if you have a bad credit rating you may find it difficult to be accepted for a debt consolidation loan. If this is the case, you may need to approach one of the many specialist debt companies who would offer you the money and take care of the settlements for you. Unfortunately there is a catch. Most of these companies will charge you a high interest rate, so you will eventually be paying more than you originally owed in the first place. However, you will be paying a lower monthly repayment which is easy to track and keep on top of, usually meaning an easier life for you.