Families increasingly in debt. What to do?
According to DECO Proteste, some families have 20 financing agreements, with the main cause being credit cards. But how to relieve this burden of credit? Learn about the options next.
Several credits? Did you know that with a single credit, you can combine several loans? It is called consolidated credit and allows you to pay only one installment, and lower, for all. Learn more about this option from the intermediaries of Savings in a Minute. Or first understand the numbers that the organization refers to.
Families with many credits: DECO warns - the solution will not be to enter a cycle.
The alert is given by DECO Proteste, according to news shared by Notícias ao Minuto: there are families with 20 loans or several credit cards, which will further complicate personal finances.
"We are finding many families with a lot of credits, which did not happen a few years ago. With 20 credits, with many credit cards and this is happening in an attempt to solve the problem," reads the news article citing Ana Passos from DECO.
According to the organization, the accumulation of credits will cause long-term conflicts for families, even though they help pay other installments of older credits now.
"Our concern is that many families have been using consumer credit to pay off other debts, due to financial difficulties, and this will further complicate the lives of families," warned Ana Passos.
DECO emphasizes that what consumers should do now is ask for help in finding solutions, in order to avoid defaulting and ending up on the "blacklist" of the Bank of Portugal (BdP).
Notice that the credit card may seem like a simple option to resort to, but it is, however, the "biggest cause of over-indebtedness situations", according to DECO. This is because, when using the card, you are not using the money in your bank account, but rather money from the "credit that the bank is granting you", having to then repay it (with interest).
"If not paid on the scheduled dates, which is usually by the end of the month, it implies the payment of very high interest rates when compared, for example, with the interest rates of a mortgage", warns Nuno Rico from DECO Proteste.
Several credits: What to do? Contact an intermediary and consolidate the finances.
The first step is to ask for help! If you are struggling with various credits and need more leeway in your budget, resorting to another financing solution may not be beneficial. This is because, in the long run, you end up paying more than what you would owe due to accumulated interest.
In this case, there is a solution: consider consolidating several credits. For example, do you have a car loan, a personal loan, and credit cards? It is possible to combine them all into one, paying only one installment (with less risk of forgetting to pay any), and with more appealing interest rates.
If you use a credit intermediary like Poupança no Minuto, they can make a simulation of various proposals for consolidated credit in different banks to evaluate which solution is most beneficial for your situation.
If this is not an option for any reason, seeking help from a credit intermediary also provides access to mediation from an informed and experienced agent to review the conditions of current bank financing. If possible, they can also help you transfer credits from a bank if another bank offers better conditions.
Contact us and ensure a free service, and personalized assistance from start to finish, so you can relieve your monthly budget!