subject: Is Credit Card Debt Consolidation Ever A Good Option? [print this page] Is Credit Card Debt Consolidation Ever A Good Option?
With increasing numbers of people battling to satisfy their credit card repayments, is consolidating credit card debt ever the best thing to do? Well, actually the answer is often yes. Consolidating unsecured debt is a sensible way to get your consumer spending debt in check which is often the easiest way to eliminate the debt totally. However, you will find risks associated with it and before starting to consolidate credit debt, you have to realize that combining financial debt (or balance transfer) means that you are trying to eliminate your debt entirely. It is not something you do simply to defer the problem for the future!Consolidating credit debt is actually a wise decision in many ways. Not only do you get respite from the ever increasing rise in your outstanding credit card debt balance, but in addition get other advantages too. Attractive offers for combining consumer charge card debt can be easy to find. Just about all the offers for consolidating credit debt come with an initial low APR interest rate period compared with the prevailing annual percentage rate. Quite often the initial APR is several percentage points lower than obtainable elsewhere. The factor alone makes combining outstanding credit debt balances from several different consumer charge cards, an extremely desirable option.Besides this low interest rate, the offers for consolidating unsecured debt can also consist of no monthly interest for the purchases made in the course of initial six months (or so) of balance transfer. No interest on the outstanding balance plays a significant part in slowing the rate at which your outstanding credit debt accumulates. This is another very significant benefit that all charge card companies use to persuade debtors to use their consolidation services and transfer outstanding debt balances to themThen there are actually other, less obvious advantages.Many charge card companies will offer extra points for their reward program if you transfer outstanding debt to their particular card. Collect enough reward points and they can be exchanged for desirable consumer items later on. Depending on the items offered in the new consumer card reward program, this benefit alone might tempt you to make a debt consolidation in their favor. For example, frequent fliers might be tempted by a credit card which is co-branded with a favorite airline and offering cheap flights. Others might offer better deals in other ways which suit your lifestyle. Others still might offer higher credit limits. However, remember you must get you current debt under control before extending it.Whatever you choose to do, if you are looking to get out of debt, do your research. There are a lot of different debt management plans online if you look.
