Whilst many people re mortgage their property simply to get a new cheap loan deal, others who have sufficient equity built up in their home may choose to release some of the cash tied up in their property when they take out a re mortgage loan, for a variety of purposes.

Traditionally, people who released equity through a re mortgage loan would use the funds as a home improvement loan, putting the money back into their property and therefore increasing the value, particularly when the loan is secured on their home.

However, there has been a shift in the use of funds from re mortgages in recent times, with more and more people using the equity in their home to repay their outstanding unsecured loans or credit card debts, or simply to help supplement their income and maintain their standard of living in the current difficult economic climate.

According to a recent survey from LMS property services, around one in four home owners who take out a re mortgage loan, are using the funds to repay existing loan debt or to spend on other items, although more than half are still using the funds as a home improvement loan.

Of those home owners who released equity from their property, around two thirds took an additional loan of at least £10,000, whatever the reason for the loan was.

Although taking a re mortgage to consolidate short term unsecured loan debts can save large sums of money on loan repayments each month, borrowers must remember that they will be paying the home owner loan for a much longer term, which could end up costing them more than the original loan over the full term.

Two thirds of re mortgage loan customers took out their new loan simply to get a cheap loan deal compared with their existing loan. Around half of borrowers who have done this have saved up to £500 per month on their loan repayments.

Today (Monday 14th January) has been dubbed as the most depressing day of the year for many people. Christmas has finally gone by altogether for another year, the decorations have been taken down and the drudgery of returning to work has settled back into the usual rut.

The other main reason for an increased level of depression amongst many individuals is due to the fact that today is the day when the credit card bills for the month start to land on the doormat, or the new personal loan repayment goes out of the bank for the first time.

By this time of January, most people have now fully realised just how much they overspent by during the Christmas period and many will now be panicking about how they will ever be able to repay their credit cards, overdrafts, personal loans and in some cases, pay day loans or doorstep loans.

But rather than simply burying their heads in the sand and hoping that their loan debts will go away, it is important to face up to the problem and do something about it. Ideally, of course, this would be to pay off the credit cards and loans in one go, but in the real world this is not usually an option for many people.

There are several good deals on cheap credit cards at the moment, with many offering a zero per cent interest balance transfer deals for up to a year, to switch credit cards, which could save a large amount of money on monthly interest payments for those with large balances.

The other option could also be a debt consolidation loan. There are some particularly cheap loan rates on unsecured loans at the moment and for someone with several personal loans which they have had for some time, this could end up saving them hundreds of pounds a year, depending on their outstanding debts and requirements.

Now that Christmas and the New Year celebrations have passed and the majority of people have returned to work, or are about to, many consumers will now sit down and work out exactly how much the festive season has cost them this year.

Although some people will have planned ahead and have already covered the cost of their celebrations, others will still receive a large shock when they check their bank balance and their credit card statement for January lands on the doormat.

Many individuals may be faced with the prospect of not being able to repay all of their Christmas debts at one go, others may have taken out a personal loan to help spread the cost and the first loan repayment is now due to go out, on top of all their other loan and credit card debts, as well as their regular monthly bills.

If this is the case, now might be a good time to consider a debt consolidation loan, particularly for clearing balances from high interest rate credit cards and older personal loans with a high interest rate charge.

Interest rates on unsecured loans have dropped significantly over the course of the past twelve months, particularly for larger loans of between £7,500 and £15,000. This could mean that a borrower with a few existing personal loans for smaller amounts, at higher loan rates, could make some significant savings over the term of a new loan.

Of course, it is important to ensure that the overall cost of the new loan does not exceed that of the loans to be consolidated, or that you borrow more than is actually required, or this could defeat the whole object of the exercise and leave you in a worse position than when you started.

With some careful planning and seeking the appropriate advice from an adviser or loan broker, a borrower could potentially reduce their monthly loan and credit card commitments by a significant amount.

More and more people in the UK are now taking more care with their finances and are checking their bank balances on a regular basis, often even daily, to ensure that they still have sufficient funds to cover their bills and regular personal loan and credit card repayments.

A new survey conducted by Experian has found that around one in five of us check their bank balance every day and a further 22 per cent check it up to three times a week, to ensure they still have enough money to get to the end of the month.

Despite this constant checking of accounts, the survey also found that the majority of those people surveyed were already finding it difficult to manage their finances by 17 days into the month, leaving them struggling to find enough to live on by the end of the month and before their next pay day.

As a result of this, a large percentage of the population rely on credit in the form of personal loans and credit cards to get them through to their pay day, with some even using short term loans, such as pay day loans to bridge the gap until they receive their next salary.

By budgeting for the month once you have been paid it may be easier to survive until your next pay day without resorting to using credit and loans and thereby building up your overall debt levels. By accounting for all your necessary bills as well as loan and card repayments at the beginning of the month, it is possible to see how much disposable income is left over for the month, dividing this amount into weekly amounts.

For those with outstanding personal loans and credit cards, it may be possible to reduce the monthly costs with a zero per cent balance transfer card, or a debt consolidation loan at a cheap loan rate, thereby instantly freeing up more disposable income for the month.

Now that Christmas has passed once again and we enter the slight lull between Christmas and New Year, many individuals across the UK will be waking up bleary eyed and wondering what all the fuss and huge amount of build up was all about.

The next thought which is likely to hit many people is just how much they actually spent over the course of the festive season, on presents and celebrations and for some, this may not become fully apparent until they receive their credit card bill, or check their bank statement for January.

Although many individuals have made huge cut backs on their Christmas spending this year, others will still have depended on credit, such as overdrafts, credit cards and personal loans to cover the cost of the festive season, without taking into account the consequences of the additional loan repayments in January.

Worst of all, a growing number of borrowers have taken out expensive pay day loans, which will start charging extremely high levels of loan interest if they are not paid off within the first month of taking the loan out.

For many people who find themselves in the position where they are unable to manage all their loan and other debt repayments in the New Year, a debt consolidation loan may be a suitable solution to the problem.

A debt consolidation loan pools a person’s individual smaller loans and debts into one single larger loan with just one monthly repayment amount. This is often easier for someone to manage instead of many smaller repayments.

Although the monthly loan repayments on a debt consolidation loan are usually significantly cheaper than the previous debts, a borrower should ensure that they are only using the loan to repay more expensive debts and that the term of the new loan is not excessive compared with the original debts, as this could work out more expensive over the term of the loan.