There may come a point when you realize that you’re no longer comfortable managing all your credit card debt. This typically comes into play when you have debt spread across multiple cards, thus requiring more than one payment every month.
If you add this to other forms of debt, such as a personal loan, it’s easy to become so bogged down that you begin to wonder about your future.
Fortunately, debt consolidation could be the answer to your problems. With this, you’re putting some or all of your debt under the same umbrella. Subsequently, you reduce the number of monthly payments and save money on interest.
How to Get Started
There are several ways to get started with debt consolidation, including:
- Balance transfer credit card
- Home equity loan
- Personal loan
For the sake of this article, we’ll examine the process of using a balance transfer credit card to consolidate credit card debt. Here’s what you need to do:
- Make a list of your current credit cards and their respective balance. This will give you a clear idea of which ones you want to bring under the same roof.
- Compare balance transfer credit cards to find the one that best suits your situation. Focus most your attention on the length of the introductory rate and the balance transfer fee.
- Move your debt accordingly. Once you receive an approval, you can make the big move. Soon enough, you’ll be left with one credit card, as opposed to several.
Tip: implement a strategy for paying off your entire balance before your zero percent introductory rate expires (typically between 12 and 21 months). By doing so, you can save yourself hundreds or thousands of dollars in finance charges.
With debt consolidation, you’re not reducing the amount of money you have to pay back. However, you are making your situation easier to manage and saving money on interest.
Do you have any experience using a balance transfer credit card? Were you happy with the results?