Paid review of *Debt Consolidation News*

If you have student loans, you've probably been asked at least once, "Have you consolidated yet?" Consolidating loans, like rolling over old workplace retirement plans, is one of those things that people talk about as a no-brainer. Nobody asks, "Do you plan to consolidate?" or "Do you think consolidating your loans would be a good move?" They ask, "Have you done it yet?"Like most one-size-fits-all financial advice, consolidating your loans is more complicated than it first appears, and it's not always the best choice. If you have revolving debt on multiple credit cards, the oft-repeated advice to pay off revolving debt by borrowing against retirement accounts or home equity is also overly simplistic. Whenever you're planning to move debt from one creditor with a certain set of terms to another creditor with a different set of terms, it pays to look carefully at all the options, get some advice, do some research, and then decide whether consolidation will be the panacea it's made out to be.The website calling itself Debt Consolidation News seeks to educate those who are considering consolidating their debts, whether they plan to consolidate student loans or borrow against their assets to pay off high-interest debt. The site is formatted like a blog, with a sidebar offering links to popular posts, the site's archives, and a short list of categories. However, much of the content is in longer, detailed article format, not in the short, frequent posts that characterizes most blogs. Although the writing is somewhat uneven, the content is for the most part well-researched, and gives a good broad view of the options available to people in different situations. There are many useful definitions to help in the process of shopping for consolidation vehicles. One useful post explains the difference between credit counseling, which helps you get your spending in control, and consolidation, which gives you one bill to pay instead of many, and hopefully also gives you a fixed interest rate instead of a variable rate.Who's the audience here? Clearly, the audience is people who have found themselves in debt and want to find a way to make debt more manageable. But is the site American or British? It's actually an interesting bridge. The author or authors (only a few articles are signed) are quite obviously from some corner of the United Kingdom. Much of the statistical information is about UK debtors. But many of the links to news articles are from American newspapers, and the authors seem to have an excellent grasp of American laws that regulate credit, bankruptcy, federal student loans, etc. Overall, I think this site is definitely worth reading for folks trying to eliminate debt. My major criticism is that some of the articles seem too focused on debt elimination, sometimes at the expense of other financial goals. Although the site doesn't exactly encourage debtors to borrow against retirement funds, it doesn't explain in too much detail why this is a bad idea for many people. And there's a very hard line taken on credit card use, an assumption that if you have credit cards you will eventually run up unmanageable debt. I agree that some people really should not have credit cards because they're unable to use them responsibly. But I think for the majority of people who have high credit card balances, credit cards will still figure in their overall financial picture even when the high balances have been paid off. I'd rather see an emphasis on responsible use of money, instead of an oversimplified presentation of credit cards as evil.Best of all, this site has unexpected glimmers of honesty and humor. In this post about student credit card debt, the anonymous author advises students to "Stay within your budget." But the post goes on to say, "If you are a super rich brat, this advice isn’t for you. But if you are one of the regular guys, you must know your limits and stay within them."So, super rich brats need not bother to visit this site. For the rest of us regular guys who are trying to get out of debt and stay there, it's worth a read.