How does debt consolidation work?
It's hard to keep track of multiple loans, and all those admin fees can add up quickly. A debt consolidation loan can solve both problems by pulling all your debt into a single loan. Let's start by explaining what debt consolidation is: It involves taking out a loan to pay off several smaller loans. At Old Mutual, we offer to make those payments to your different credit accounts for you. Bundling your debt into a single loan reduces the admin of multiple repayments, and gives you more time to pay off your loan at lower instalments.Before you apply for or accept a loan, it’s important to know how much income you have left after you’ve paid all your monthly expenses. The monthly instalments of any new loan should be significantly lower than the amount you have remaining at the end of every month.
The cost of your loan - your loan term will affect your monthly payments and the total interest and fees paid over the life of your loan.
Your affordability - You will need to consider how much money you have left over every month after all your regular expenses have been paid.
Use our personal loan calculator to work out what your *estimated monthly instalment will be.
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Combining your debt in a single loan can help you in three ways:
- It simplifies repayments, and it makes it easier to budget since you know exactly how much will be debited from your account every month.
- It can be used to restructure your debt and spread your repayments over a longer-term. This would reduce your monthly instalments, but you would take longer to pay off the loan.
- Consolidation of your debt allows you to get rid of revolving credit (like credit cards or store accounts) that just keeps accumulating over time.
A debt consolidation loan makes sense when you have several credit accounts that you want to close. Maybe you want the ease and simplicity of a single monthly payment, or maybe you want to restructure your debt to lower your monthly instalments. If you want to restructure your debt to give yourself a little more breathing room, know that lengthening your loan term to lower your monthly instalments will also result in more accrued interest over the life of your loan.
Regardless of your reasons, you’ll still need to pass a credit assessment to qualify for consolidation, and remember that it’s important to close credit accounts that have been used repaid with credit from a debt consolidation loan. A failure to close revolving credit accounts, like credit cards, could result in you taking on more debt.
Applying for a debt consolidation loan is much like applying for a regular personal loan. The process starts with an online application, a visit to a branch, or a phone call. Then, when you find yourself on the phone or in an Old Mutual branch with a consultant, you can request that your Old Mutual Personal Loan be used to pay off existing credit accounts.
- A valid ID
- 3 months’ bank statements
- Your most recent payslip, as proof employment
- Be 18 years or older
Single admin fee - There's no need to pay admin fees on several loans when you can bundle them into a single loan.
Option to restructure debt - If you're struggling to make repayments, you can use a consolidation loan to extend your loan term and lower your monthly instalments.
Peace of mind - When you have only one monthly payment, you won't have to worry about accidentally missing repayments.
*The use of the online calculator is discretionary and calculations are estimates. Old Mutual Finance gives no warranty, express or implied, as to the accuracy of such estimates and does not accept any liability for loss or damage of any nature whatsoever, which may result from the use and/or reliance of estimates provided by the calculator All loans are subject to a full credit assessment.
- Old Mutual loan offerings are made available through Old Mutual Finance (RF) (Pty) Ltd, a Licensed Financial Services and Registered Credit Provider (NCRCP35)