I'm trying to find a loan to consolidate my considerable amount of credit card debt. I don't want to file bankruptcy and am looking for a loan that I can pay back over 8 to 10 years. How can I go about finding such a loan?
This is difficult. To put it in perspective, when a lender makes a loan of some dollar amount they have accepted that same amount of risk. The loan may not get paid.
In a consolidation loan, you are asking one lender to take all the risk that is now spread out among different lenders. They must have some incentive to do this. They need to either see a very reliable borrower, or they must improve their position and lower their risk. To do this they would want collateral. For a loan of 8 or 10 years, most automobiles are out as they don't hold a value that long, and there would be no collateral coming from credit card purchases. The lender would want land or something cash-like, such as a cash deposit, solid stocks, etc.
In most cases the borrower with excessive credit card debt doesn't have sufficient collateral. Often these borrowers also go back into credit card debt and bring these payments back to themselves, plus they have the payment for the consolidation loan, so from a lenders perspective, these are often just a bad idea.
To resolve excessive credit card debt, one of the best alternatives is to stop charging on them and make payments greater than the minimum. Pay as much as possible on the lower balance cards to free up those minimum payments when the balance is paid off. Then go on to the next card. It takes a lot of time.
An alternative is to seek out a credit counseling service. A non-profit agency is good as they often work best for the customer. Some others may charge you a fee. Another debt is not what you need. What some of these do is approach the creditor and tell them, this borrower wants to pay, but is struggling. You would then establish a budget with the service. You pay them each month and they pay the creditors. In many cases the lender has a relationship with the service and will reduce the interest rate or even forgive some of the debt itself.
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This is difficult. To put it in perspective, when a lender makes a loan of some dollar amount they have accepted that same amount of risk. The loan may not get paid. 