What Is A Debt Consolidation Credit Card?

These tough financial times make it often difficult to meet our financial obligations and loans or payments that we would have had no problem meeting a couple of years ago are now a strain on our finances because of a loss of job, higher interest rates or a reduction in pay. Nowadays, you often hear about debt consolidation, especially applying for a credit card to consolidate all of your debt into one low monthly payment. But what is a debt consolidation credit card and is it a good idea for your unique situation?

First of all, let’s cover what debt consolidation is. Say that you have three credit cards that you are paying on, as well as a mortgage, two car loans and a loan from Bob’s furniture store, for the living room and bedroom furniture that you purchased a year ago. Debt consolidation will allow you to turn all of these debts into one, with the exception of your mortgage, so that you only have one payment to worry about rather than six. You pay off each loan and then make payments on the money you borrowed to pay them off.

Debt consolidation for credit card debt takes the three credit cards that you are currently paying on, and pays them off, putting the balance on your new credit card. This new card may have a lower interest rate, or at the least a lower minimum payment so that you don’t have as much cash going out as you did before. Credit card debt consolidation is a common procedure and companies that offer this service are easy to find. If you have a high interest rate on your credit card debt consolidation may allow you to pay them off, and pay a much lower interest rate on the same principle.

Debt consolidation for credit cards may save you money both in the long run and in the short run. If you take credit cards A, B and C, which each have $1200 charged to them, and an interest rate of 15%, and you put them on credit card D, which only has an interest rate of 13.9%, then you will save quite a bit of money in the long run, as well as some money right away on the payments. Of course, if the interest rate on the new credit card is 19%, this may not be such a great deal even if the monthly payment is several hundred dollars lower than the combined payments for the first three cards.

You don’t have to use a consolidated credit card for just other credit card debt either. You can use it to pay off car loans or other types of store credit that have high interest rates. You can also get debt consolidation loans, which is simply money lent to pay off the rest of your debts, but not put on a credit card. One thing to keep in mind that unless you have excellent credit, you will likely not be able to get an unsecured credit card or loan over $15,000. If you have more than that amount of debt then you may have to improve your credit score, or get rid of some of the debt before debt consolidation will work for you.