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Marketers pronounce debt consolidation loans as the instant fix for the dire financial predicament that is pulling your family under. With a mere stroke of the pen your financials woes are reduced to a snivel. Now instead of many high interest payments each month, there is only one. And the interest rate on consolidation loan is significantly less that the interest rates on your credit cards. An answer to a prayer, debt consolidation loans, can be the savior of financial sin.

And they can be, but only if the borrower recognizes that this is an extreme measure. Debt consolidation treats the symptoms; it does nothing to cure the overall disease. The disease, for most people who seek relief from debt with a consolidation loan, is overspending. If debt consolidation is not accompanied by a complete change in spending habits, debt overload will return. And when it does, the options for relief dwindle.

Debt consolidation loans reduce the averaged interest rate a borrower pays but it also extends the debt over a longer period of time, typically from 10 to 20 years. So, the borrower may not, in fact, pay less interest for debt, but in reality pays more.

Another important thing to be aware of is that what was once unsecured debt is not secured, usually by your home. Debt consolidation loans can double your risk of losing your home and can make your home more difficult to sell, should you need or want to. When real estate market values fall, you may find yourself in position where you have far more debt than equity.

Debt consolidation loans can put a family back on the road to financial solvency. But only when accompanied by a radical change in how the family spends money. Financial counselors recommend that the family cut up all but one credit card when the credit cards are cleared by the consolidation loan. Debt consolidation loans will ease the symptoms of too many high interest debt payments going out each month, but only by spreading the debt out for a longer period of time.