What happens to your payment if you decrease your term to three years?

Some loans are specifically advertised as debt consolidation loans – these allow you to merge your loans into one.

Consolidation loans are now much harder to obtain and should only be considered once you have explored all your other options as they are usually secured against your home.

While they can seem an attractive option because of lower interest rates and repayments, they can often cost you a lot more in the longer term than sticking with your current loans and you risk losing your home if you cannot keep up the repayments.

It is easy to consolidate your debts and then go and build up more debt elsewhere, so be careful and budget thoroughly.