Consolidate Credit Card Debt

Consolidating credit card debt has never been easier. Now is the time...

There's More Than One Way to Skin a Cat

The time has come. You need to consolidate credit card debt. You're tired of paying exorbitantly high interest rates and getting nowhere with your payments. What you need to do is consolidate credit card debt before it's too late and you're in too deep. Now, there are two ways you can go about this. The first way involves finding a credit card with a 0% introductory rate and a low fixed rate after that. Ideally, if you can swing it, you would transfer all your credit card debt to this card and pay it off during the 0% introductory period. Obviously, this would require making huge monthly payments (depending on how long the 0% rate is in effect) but your entire payment would go towards what you actually owe, not interest. How great is that? As it stands right now, you're probably only making the required minimum payment each month, most of which goes towards interest. That's getting you nowhere fast.

One thing to look out for when using this method to consolidate credit card debt is balance transfer fees. See, most people who do this and cannot pay the entire balance off by the time the introductory period ends simply transfer the remaining balance to another 0% card. But credit card companies are getting wise to this practice, and that's why they are starting to charge balance transfer fees. These fees are usually 3% of each balance transferred. That's why it's best just to try to get it paid off in full during the introductory period.

The other way to consolidate credit card debt is through a debt consolidation program. This would be a good option if your credit is "overextended," meaning creditors feel you have too much available credit. (Yes, there is a point where you won't be able to get any more credit cards if you have too much outstanding credit, even if you have good credit. This is a surprise to a lot of people, but listen to the voice of experience here. Trust us.) Under a debt consolidation program, you hire a debt consolidation company to...well...consolidate credit card debt on your behalf. What they do is contact your creditors to get your interest rates reduced. Sometimes they can even get past fees removed, and that can add up fast! Once they've made deals to get your balances reduced, they consolidate credit card debt and you make one monthly payment to the debt consolidation company, which they distribute to your creditors. As a result of all the reductions, you're debt free in as little as five years!

We've presented you with two good options to consolidate credit card debt. Which will you choose?

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