Tired of making five or six payments to different creditors each month and seemingly making little or no progress paying your bills? Consolidating your bills into one monthly payment will alleviate that problem.

Getting out of debt is no easy task, especially when you have to divide your efforts among several different creditors and lenders. You could be spending hundreds of dollars on your debt each month, but you’ll only see your balances go down a little because of the number of bills you have.

Using a consolidation loan to pay off your debts allows you to focus your efforts on a single debt instead of several different bills. Not only does this relieve the stress of remembering to make multiple payments each month, but it also allows you to pay off your debt faster.

If you own a home, you can use the equity you’ve earned to consolidate your debt. By getting a home equity loan or home equity line of credit, you may qualify for a higher loan than you might not otherwise be able to get. Not only that, when you have a home equity loan, the interest paid is tax deductible. You can take advantage of tax benefits and start relieving your debt.

You may already have a lender in mind for a debt consolidation or home equity loan. Before you apply, you should shop around several lenders using free loan quotes. Because lenders have different terms and rates for their loans, you’ll want to compare loans before making a final decision.

If you don’t compare loan quotes, you could end up choosing a loan with a higher cost than what’s available to you. Avoid signing up for a loan without first getting quotes from a few other lenders.