Has anyone ever consolidated credit cards into a personal loan?

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
July 31, 2018
56 replies
0 views

Hi! I am looking for advice on lowering my debt as it seems my credit cards keep rising up and up. I pay off my min. balance very month but my balance only seems to go up and not down. I have 5 cards and I heard from a friend that I could get a personal loan to pay them off and then pay the loan. Curious if anyone has ever done this or it would something like this help me????

Any advice would be great.

Thanks!

Best answer by Lady1scorp

Yes. Your friend is correct, I have done this before with my credit union. You have to apply for a personal loan, they ask how much you would like or they obtain a copy of your credit report. Whatever is your total credit card balance, let's say $5000 they pay off $5000 and you make low monthly payments on the loan amount and in return your credit cards are at a $0 balance.

Remember this is subject to approval from your bank.

Show previous replies

twinside

Yes, I’ve done this. It probably will save you money, but here’s the trick: You can’t go back to using the credit card and only paying minimum payments. Consolidate into a personal loan, and see if they’ll give you enough to pay off the balance PLUS $1000. If they will, the other $1000 becomes your emergency fund. LEAVE IT ALONE and use it only for things like your water heater goes boom or you lose your job. Consider tucking aside an extra say $50 off each paycheck to augment that fund. That will keep you from having to tap the credit card for rainy-day expenses.

Important to note: Minimum payments on a credit card aren’t enough to keep your balance from rising. You need to pay the interest for the month and a portion of the principal each month to get the balance to actually go down.

ChelleW

I just applied for a personal loan through lending club to Refinance our Lowe’s card. We remodeled our kitchen and pay more than the minimum every month but the balance is still pretty high after a few years of paying on it The interest rate they offered is 5.89% with an apr 7.95%. :). Just waiting for the determination. Fingers crossed they give it to me. I’ll be able to pay it off in about two years if I continue to pay the same amount we cure pay. Plus it will help my credit as I don’t have a lot of accounts. This will up my available credit, shrink my used credit ratio and add a different type of account as right now I only have credit cards on my report. Praying the Lord makes it happen.

JustUsJeepin3

Hey Cat!

Yes, you can consolidate but it might not save you much. In addition, you might actually get a bigger interest rate. If your credit is not great, you most likely won't get that personal, unsecured loan.

Once again, the interest rates went up at the beginning of the year so you will see an increase in your payment, finance charge and balance (UGH!). The fastest way to pay off credit card debt is to always pay the minimum + the finance charge each month. You will notice the balance drop. As the balance drops, the minimum payment as well as the finance charge will decrease. However, if you maintain the same payment, you will be adding to the principal payment and pay those nasty cards off even faster. It takes time but like you, I'm also antsy to pay them off faster.

Msantana

Well I did try and they turn me down cause of my credit score do to the fact I was only paying the minimum on my credit cards. In the mean time that is what affect my score.

Beazy

I did, I used a subsidiary of SunTrust called lightstream. Their interest rates were pretty good compared to my card's rates.

Shook

From my understanding you should try not to transfer balances or close accounts. For some reason that doesn’t look good for your score

santoast68

Hi! I had been looking for a way to consolidate about $30,000 of credit card debt for a year or so and just last month I got an offer in the mail from Best Egg (it's a play on "Nest Egg" which, unbelievably, it took me weeks to figure out). I'd tried Lending Tree and SoFi and a few others and none would give me the length/term I wanted or a decent interest rate so I passed. Best Egg gave me three years and 7.99%. The application process took less than half an hour, I was approved within a day, and had the money in my checking account two days after that. I cannot recommend them highly enough. Like, if you could fanboy over a financial lending institution, I totally would. Check them out.

smr3439

sandrasarria

Im trying to pay off 1 credit that does not go down just keeps going up.I thought of getting a personal loan any suggestions.

AnonFire

I am currently doing this. Small loan but I made sure to get an interest rate lower than the cards. Also I pay less per month than with all the cards. Most importantly, do NOT rack up new debt on those cards and do NOT close them. It should help your credit score too.