Financial Scenarios

No,

What you would do is apply for another credit card that is advertising an interest free period to get your business. You then close your previous card and transfer the balance to the new card paying off as much as you can in the interest free period, you then keep switching until you have cleared the debt, then you get rid of all of them and use only a Debit card.

 

I'd suggest talking to Dave Ramsey.

What he'd probably say is something like this:

If you get a consolodation loan, you're not getting rid of the debt, you're only shifting it from one place to the next. He'd recommend 1) Get $1,000 in the bank, 2) pay off ALL your debt from smallest to largest. So you pay minimum on everything but your smallest debt. Everything extra you have that month goes to that smallest debt. 3) After debt-free get 3-6mos of expenses saved up.

The reason for going smallest to largest is that you pay of a couple really quick, then you take that money and put it back to the next one on the list. Plus, by getting some quick "victories" you'll feel better and continue on.

 

I'm in the same boat as you. What I did with my credit cards was consolidate those. It closed all my accounts (which I vowed not to use again anyways) and lowered my interest rates tremedously. Also, most of the credit card companies stopped charging me the overlimit fee too. As for you loans have you checked about refinancing?
Many will say the credit consolidations are a bad idea but so far I have had no problems and my credit report is still good. My boyfriend also did this years ago and hasn't had any reprecussions. Please feel free to email me privately if you have any more questions about debt. I know it all too well and I'm only 27!

 

The bulk of the "loan" or "debt" is at a very low 4.9%. If you can handle the current cc payments I would leave it where it is. Don't use the cards until the debt is retired, and then only if you can pay off the balance each month (ideal world sometimes).

The only advantages to taking out a loan would be to lower your monthly payments and make only one payment, but you will pay more money over the course of the loan because of the higher interest rate. Just remember that even though your monthly minimum payment decreases on the credit cards, you should continue to pay the same higher amount each month. You'll pay it off faster than with your conventional loan and with lower overall expense. Also, focus any extra money on the highest interest rate debt to make extra payments to principal. As a debt is retired, add that payment to the next highest and so on until all the extra cash is going to pay off the lowest interest credit cards.