Using a credit card debt loan to pay off your existing credit card balances can be a useful tool in helping you get out of debt. The idea being that you use the proceeds of the new loan to pay off your credit cards, thus reducing the interest you are paying and making the payments more manageable.
But is there a better option that doesn't require going out and getting a new loan? Yes.
One of the main reasons why many people turn to a credit card debt loan as a solution to their debt problems is the fact that these loans will almost always have a significantly lower interest rate than those offered by the credit card companies. And for the most part this is true. But there is an exception... the zero interest credit card.
Some credit card companies offer credit card rates as low as 0%
interest (yes zero) on any balances transferred from other
credit cards (and in some cases other types of debts). And still others
will offer rates as low as 1% to 3% on
balance transfers.
What's the catch you say? Well, the 'catch' is that these are introductory rates which will increase after a set period of time (usually between 6 to 18 months). What the post-introductory rate will be varies from credit card to credit card. But ideally you won't have to worry about this because before the introductory period expires, you will have paid off the debt or transfered your remaining balance to another no or low interest credit card.
Of course, the idea is that while you are paying zero (or very low) interest on the credit cards, you are paying down the balance as fast as possible. And this is made much easier by the fact that all, or almost all, of the payments you make are going straight to paying off the principle of the debt and not interest.
Although successfully pulling off the credit card balance transfer does take a bit of work, it can definitely be worth it.