Before you apply for a debt consolidation loan, it's important to work out how much you would need to borrow to cover all of your unsecured debts, as well as how much your monthly payments would be. If you take longer to repay your debt consolidation loan, you can reduce the size of those monthly payments. Many people find this aspect of debt consolidation really helpful, and worth paying the extra interest overall. Bear in mind that you could be turned down for a debt consolidation loan if it doesn't look like you can afford the repayments - and you shouldn't commit yourself to unrealistic payments anyway.

How does it work?
If you want a simple tool that will show you how much your debt consolidation loan payments could be, depending on how much you borrow, the interest rate and how long you take to repay it, you can use the debt consolidation calculator on this website.

You can select any loan amount from £1,000 to £30,000 by moving the first slider left or right. You can choose to repay the loan over up to 15 years - and moving the second slider will allow you to see how your repayment period would affect your monthly payments. You can change the interest rate with the third slider; the higher the interest, the more expensive your debt consolidation loan becomes.

Your monthly repayment amount updates instantly to the right of the screen. Play with the sliders until you reach an amount you are happy with. That information can really help you decide what you're looking for in a debt consolidation loan.