AIzaSyCuK3Ucgvu8ezvMRfG4TlCl4IJeXtWiWdA Skip to main content
Monthly Archives

April 2022

Debt Consolidation vs. Bankruptcy – How to Settle Your Debt

By Bankruptcy Law, Understanding Bankruptcy No Comments

Learn to settle your debt with either Debt Consolidation or Bankruptcy. 

Alabama’s total state debt is nearly $9 billion. If an institution such as the State Government of Alabama is not always in the green financially, then it is no wonder that its residents often find themselves in positions of repaying debts.

While some debt isn’t bad—a mortgage can help you achieve the goal of owning a home and may help you ultimately build wealth, student loans can help you obtain a college degree, and a moderate amount of debt, if paid off in time, can help you build credit–the wrong kind of debt can lead to financial ruin.

DISCLAIMER: The following blog post is just advice, and you will be better served to call David S. Clark with your bankruptcy questions. This blog contains helpful tips and advice, but is not professional legal advice, and shouldn’t treated as such.

Need Bankruptcy Help? Call David S. Clark

There are several tools that debtors can use which can help someone recover from an extensive amount of debt. The number of these, though, can be overwhelming if you are not sure which option is best for you.

Two of the more common options are debt consolidation and bankruptcy. When choosing between debt consolidation and bankruptcy, it is important to know the benefits and to determine which option is best for you based on your unique financial situation.

Debt Consolidation 

Debt consolidation refers to the act of consolidating multiple lines of debt into a single, bundle debt payment. This payment usually has a lower interest rate, and, therefore, a lower monthly payment.

If you have multiple student loans, credit cards, or other liabilities with high monthly payments because debt consolidation can simplify things for you, it may be the best choice.

While the interest rate and monthly payment may be lower on a debt consolidation loan, it’s important to pay attention to the payment structure. Typically, with a smaller monthly payment that debt consolidation provides, debtors will pay on their loans for a longer period of time. This means that you will end up paying a higher amount than you originally would have paid.

If, however, this means that you are able to make your payments, then it will be a good option for you.

Bankruptcy

Many Alabama residents consider bankruptcy as a financial boogeyman to be avoided at all costs. Yet, if you have taken on an unimaginable amount of debt, bankruptcy exists to help you. 

Bankruptcy is a legal process where an individual who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from part or all of their debt. This can be an extremely long process that requires granting judges and creditors extensive access to financial records, among other things. 

In deliberation with your bankruptcy attorney, the court will put together a plan for you to pay off as much as your debt as possible. They will also provide court-mandated guidance on how to avoid another incident involving bankruptcy in the future.

With the extensive paperwork, financial documentation, laws, and local procedures present in a bankruptcy filing, hiring an experienced bankruptcy attorney to represent you in bankruptcy is very important. 

David S. Clark and his team have been helping Auburn and Opelika, AL residents settle debt through debt consolidation and bankruptcy for years. Contact David S. Clark today.

DISCLAIMER: The above blog post is just advice, and you will be better served to call David S. Clark with your bankruptcy questions. This blog contains helpful tips and advice, but is not professional legal advice, and shouldn’t treated as such.