The paradox that is personal loans

As recommended by the site, I used a debt consolidation calculator to figure out how much I should pay each month to pay of my debt in X amount of time. I think the calculator's mathematics is flawed, but oh well.

If I take out a personal loan, it says, I would pay approximately $200 less than if I didn't, if I tried to pay off everything in a year.

Sounds feasible enough, except for the fact that I already did try to apply for a personal loan, through my own bank, and was denied.

I never understood why, the "most" sage advice you can give people who have a lot of debt and have problems making payments is to consolidate and send off one payment. Get a loan and pay everything off, then all you have to do is pay the loan, whose interest is probably less than what you are paying for everything else.

The flaw with this plan? The people who most need to consolidate have bad credit and are denied these personal debt consolidation loans. It doesn't make sense to me why you should be punished for trying to get out of the whole you are in.

Mind you, my debt is way below the national average for how much debt "young" people have. In my age group, I'm actually doing very well. But, I'm not doing well enough to ask my own bank for a loan and be accepted.

Take my money for school, but when I want to help myself out - forget it.

Sometimes I wonder if student loans are calculated in the debt I have on my credit report, I do intend to get one since credit reports are free for everyone in the US now, but I'd be happier if people just gave me the money I needed and I could get away with using 1 stamp a month, thank you very much.

Whoever thought of credit reports and how they are calculated never was poor.

- V.