Debt Consolidation

One balance replaces several, at a new rate over a new term, and every honest question about whether that helps reduces to a comparison of two rates across two timelines. Nothing is forgiven and nothing is written off: the amount owed on the morning after is the amount owed the night before.

Three numbers decide which of the routes below is even available to you, and they are worth having before you read any of them. The first is the weighted average rate across all your balances, not the rate on the worst card, because that average is what a new loan has to beat. The second is the payment you could still make in a bad month. The third is whether you would be approved at the rate in the advertisement, which for many people is the whole answer.

The framing error these guides exist to correct is judging an offer by its monthly payment. A smaller payment stretched over a longer term at a similar rate is more interest delivered more comfortably, and it feels like relief while costing money. The related trap arrives later: cards cleared by a consolidation are still open cards, and what happens to them over the following year decides whether the exercise worked.

Nobody buys a mention in these guides and no product here is recommended. You will also not find a rate quoted as though it were the rate you would be offered, because pricing depends on a credit file I cannot see. Where a current market average matters, the guide sends you to the federal release that publishes it.