With the interest rate plane at its "cruise height" --it is the metaphor used by Christine Lagarde-- more and more citizens begin to observe how debt eats up their income. One of the options to alleviate this type of burden in the short term is the reunification of debts, which is already rising rapidly in Spain despite the fact that its cost is also increasing and can worsen the user's situation.
According to the IV Barometer of the Asufin consumer association, with data collected in June, some 883,000 families have resorted to financial reunification in Spain in the last year, 73,000 more than in the previous year, or 9% more. They did so despite the fact that the average interest on a debt reunification went from 4% last year to 5.48% today.
These data reflect a trend that will foreseeably increase from now on. Interest rates began to rise in July of last year and have done so gradually to reach 4.25%. Loan review is slower so families are still not suffering the full intensity of the effects of the new economic scenario.
For now, reunifying the loans is now somewhat less of a relief. If in 2022 it could allow the monthly payment to be reduced by 75.2%, now the short-term savings are less, 70.8%. Refinancings carried out by conventional banks have risen 3.9% in ten months and allow an average reduction of 72.1% in monthly debt payments.
The Asufin barometer is accompanied by a survey among 1,155 people who have carried out operations of this type. The results also show that reunifications now entail longer debt repayment terms: 36.5% of operations are now over 15 years, when a few months ago the percentage was 32%.
The downside of this solution is that the client will end up paying much more for their debts in the long term, in some cases up to five times more in terms of interest.
Asufin gives the example of a family that earns 3,200 euros a month and owes 121,410 euros. Even having a low mortgage of 74,900 euros, he has requested loans to buy a car for 15,150 euros, make a reform of 17,800 euros and finance household appliances for 4,520 euros, to which revolving and non-revolving credit cards would be added.
This large number of loans, especially for consumption and with repayment dates of less than seven years, would carry interest of 25,478 euros. They would end up assuming a monthly fee of 2,321 euros for the family, difficult to assume. The refinancing solution reduces the fee to between 600 and 700 euros, but as part of a loan of between 30 and 40 years of life for which the user will end up paying 134,961 euros.
Asufin alerts consumers to the risks of these reunifications, which multiply the cost of debts by up to 409%. In his work, he has analyzed six refinancing companies, among which Finanzio offers the highest cost and LP Financing, the lowest. Among them are Inmofinan, Deudafix and Agencia Negociadora.
