" It seemed at the time that everyone in the nation was obsessed with the stock market and share dealing became the "in thing" to do. Ordinary men and women who knew very little of the ways that stock markets operated began to buy stock to join in this speculative boom. Many people even borrowed money to allow them to buy even greater amounts in the belief that the good times were bound to continue. There are conflicting reports that Muslim and Jewish merchants in Cairo were the first to establish a stock market while the traditionalists maintain the oldest ones were actually in Italy and these are usually the starting point when considering a brief history of stock market trading. The 13th Century Italians almost certainly had the closest share trading markets to what we would recognize today. And don't hesitate to haggle a bit with the banks and loan companies. Play them off against each other. No matter how good their offer sounds always tell them that you will need to think about it. That not only does that make you sound financially responsible but it allows you to go back to other lenders and say hey I've been offered this by ABC Bank can you beat it? It's almost certainly going to be far higher than you first imagined. Once you've got that figure you need to work out the cost of your consolidation loan. At least with that you will have a rough idea in advance. All you have to do is multiply the monthly repayment by the term of the loan. Having done that it is simply a case of taking the bill consolidation figure from the credit card cost. The most important thing that you have to consider is how much they are going to cost you. Not just the short term because that will almost all ways be better than the amount you are currently paying. It's the long term cost that can be the sting in the tail with any kind of debt consolidation loan. As a smart shopper you need to do the math on whether the amount you will pay over the life of your refinancing will be worth the monthly reduction in your outgoings. They will look at any number of technical indicators that they feel will give them a clue as to what may happen. Of course outside influences can also affect matters. These can happen very rapidly without warning and send prices shooting either up or down and totally confounding the indicators. A feature of any stock market that further complicates matters is the fact that there are several prices for any one stock.