Consolidating Credit Card Debt

by Jesse Smith on December 8, 2009

Are your credit card bills getting tough to keep up with? If so, you might consider consolidating your credit card debt into one payment.

The idea behind consolidating your credit card debt is to obtain a personal loan or another form of financial product to pay off one or more credit cards. In other words, a consumer would apply for a personal loan, for instance, and use that personal loan to pay off credit card debt.

The most common reason people want to consolidate their credit card debt is to lower their monthly payments. By doing this, at the end of every month, you should end up with more disposable income.

Let’s say, for example, that you have two credit cards with monthly payments of $60 and $80. If you obtain a personal loan to pay off these credit card balances, you would end up with both credit cards paid off, one monthly payment and, chances are, a lower monthly payment than what you were paying for the two credit cards combined ($140).

People also like to take advantage of lower interest rates and special promotions which are offered as a means of paying off credit card debt. If your credit cards have relatively high annual percentage rates (15% or higher), just think of the money you would save with a 6.9% personal loan.

Consolidating credit card debt also tends to simplify people’s lives. By consolidating your credit card debt, you only have one payment each month as opposed to the several you had prior to the consolidation. An added benefit of consolidation is that budgeting becomes simpler as well because the personal loan normally will be paid as a fixed amount each month and will be due on or about the same date every month.

An alternative to using a personal loan would be to apply for a high credit limit credit card and transfer the existing credit card balances over to the new card, thereby consolidating the payments to one. If you do this, be sure to apply for the credit card with the lowest annual percentage rate.

Consolidating credit card debt is a very common financial solution. It can assist consumers in organizing their debt, taking control of their finances, and even saving money in the long term.

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