Are consolidate credit cards a good way out?
I have no collections, but about 20k in credit cards. I just had a baby so I can't work as much and my bills are starting to pile up…
If you did it, what was your experience?
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No. No. No. Credit card consolidation will only make things worse. Call your credit card companies and work out a payment plan with them until you can get back on your feet. Start with your credit cards, look at all your bills. The one with the smallest balance is what you pay off first. Don't use your cards – pay them off starting with the smallest. Pay till it hurts. Use the money you were using for this card and when it's paid in full, pay the next smallest balance. Keep going until you get yourself out of the hole you're in.
The problem is that with your current debt and apparent difficulty in paying it you might have a problem getting a new card for enough to cover all your existing debt. Esp. since credit has tightened up.
Also if you do get one, often the low rates are only temporary, then the rate will jump up, often to a variable rate that's much higher than the teaser rate and it may even be higher than your current rates.
But my personal experience wasn't negative. I rolled about $15K in to a low fixed rate card back when credit wasn't quite so tight. If you do manage to get a good deal (which is harder now than it was when I did it), you should really try not to run up you old cards now that they have more available credit on them. Do that and you have all your current bills plus the new bill, and if you where having difficulty making the payments before you might be facing bankruptcy after adding a bunch of new debt.
should i take loan to pay off credit cards or should i consolidate