Consolidating Your Credit Card Debt

All of those credit cards were too good to refuse and you promised yourself that you would use them only in the case of an emergency, right? Well, that 52-inch television was an emergency. You had to have it for the big game. But, now you are unable to pay off your credit card bills and you have to start thinking about what sort of options you have to help you get out of trouble. Knowing that you have credit card consolidation options will help relieve the stress and get you started on what will be a very beneficial process.

One of the best credit card consolidation options is to combine the balances of your current credit cards. If you have just a couple of credit cards that have balances that you are paying on, you can save a lot of money by transferring the balance of one onto the other card. This may seem silly because it will make the balance bigger on the one card, but because you are only being charged one interest amount monthly, you are saving money. You will be basically paying off the one card when you transfer it to the other so you only have one creditor to deal with, one late fee, and one bill. It makes things easier.

If you are dealing with a more substantial about of credit card debt, you should think about a home equity loan. This type of loan allows you to borrow against the equity or investment you have in your home to pay off your credit card bills. This can be a huge help because we all have more equity in our homes than we realize. You'll usually find that the interest rates for home equity loans are better than those offered for credit cards, so this trade off makes sense.

If you don't want to take out a home equity loan, you can always get a personal debt loan that will allow you to pay off you debts with a loan from a bank or other financial institution. While these loans are generally more expensive than your traditional loan, they usually are cheaper than all the interest and late fees that you are currently paying on your credit cards. Credit card consolidation options almost always work out cheaper than keeping all of the credit cards and current debt that you have.

Another options for consolidating credit cards is to work with a debt consolidation service. These are services that help you rearrange your debt by negotiating interest rates or dismissing late fees to make your debts more manageable. These services aren't free, but like most loans and other services, you'll find that they are a much more affordable option than continuing as you have been.

Consolidating credit card debt will likely be one of the best decisions you'll ever make. It's not an easy choice to make, but in the end you will likely have a lot less debt, and you'll definitely have a lot less stress!