Best Ways to Consolidate Debt
The smartest strategy to pay off credit card debt is through credit card consolidation. When you consolidate credit card debt, you combine your existing credit card debt into a single loan with a lower interest rate. With a lower interest rate, you can save money each month and pay off debt faster.
5 best debt consolidation options:
Debt consolidation — combining multiple debt balances into one new loan — is likely to raise your credit scores over the long term if you use it to pay off debt. But it's possible you'll see a decline in your credit scores at first. That can be OK, as long as you make payments on time and don't rack up more debt.]
Consolidating credit card debt could help simplify and lower your monthly payments as you work to become debt-free.
Debt consolidation 1 is one way to make paying off your debt more manageable. Instead of paying several minimum monthly payments on a number of bills, this repayment strategy involves getting a new loan to combine and cover your other loans or debts. You can then repay all of your debts with a single monthly payment.
Taking out a personal loan to consolidate debt can sometimes make debt repayment easier and cheaper. That's because a consolidated loan may have a lower interest rate than the combined rates on the individual loans you owed. You can consolidate all different kinds of debt using a personal loan.
Debt consolidation rolls multiple debts, typically high-interest debt such as credit card bills, into a single payment. Debt consolidation might be a good idea for you if you can get a lower interest rate. That will help you reduce your total debt and reorganize it so you can pay it off faster.
Taking out a personal loan for credit card debt can help you solve many of these problems. You can use your personal loan to pay off your credit card debt in full—and since personal loans often have lower interest rates than credit cards, you might even save money in interest charges over time.
10 Ways to Pay Off Debt When You're Broke
Trying to consolidate debt with bad credit is not a great idea. If your credit rating is low, it's hard to get a low-interest loan to consolidate debts, and while it might feel nice to have only one loan payment, debt consolidation with a high-interest loan can make your financial situation worse instead of better.
If the settled debt has no history of late payments—called delinquencies—the account will remain on the credit report for seven years from the date it was reported settled.
Compare Providers
| Lender | Why We Picked It | Recommended Credit Score |
|---|---|---|
| Marcus by Goldman Sachs | Best Overall and Low Fees | 660+ |
| Discover | Best for Flexible Repayment Options | 680+ |
| Payoff | Best for Consolidating Credit Card Debt | 640+ |
| LightStream | Best for Low Rates | 680+ |
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