Personal Debt Consolidation Loans

1. Transfer your credit card debt to a 0% balance transfer credit card

If you currently have a lot of high interest credit card debt, you may be able to transfer some or all of it to a 0% balance transfer credit card, which will significantly reduce the amount of interest you are paying and make it faster and easier to repay your debt. Keep in mind that most balance transfer cards charge a fee to transfer the balance to the card. Even so, a 3-5% fee is substantially lower than the interest rates on many credit cards, which often exceed 20%. Here are a few of the top options if you want to do a 0% balance transfer:

Discover More American Flag Card: 0% balance transfer for 12 months, 5% transfer fee.

Discover® More(SM) Card: 0% balance transfer for 6 months, 3% balance transfer fee.

Citi® Platinum Select® MasterCard®: 0% balance transfer for 6 months, 3% balance transfer fee.

2. Debt Consolidation with a Home Equity Line of Credit

A Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) is a flexible line of against the value of your home – you use your home’s equity as collateral. HELOCs should be used with caution because you are using your home as collateral. But you can save a lot of money on interest when you use a HELOC as a tool to consolidate debt and not enable spending. The interest rate you can get on a HELOC depends on many factors including current interest rates, your credit history and score, and other factors. With a strong credit score you can currently find HELOCs in the low 5% range, and they go up from there.

3. Lending Club and other peer to peer lending companies

Lending Club is currently the leader in the peer to peer lending company, which allows regular folks such as you and I to request a loan which is funded by other regular folks. Lending Club just acts as the middle man and facilitates the loans. P2P loans are a good way to obtain a personal loan for whatever you need it for, including bill consolidation loans, home improvements, major purchases, etc. Lending Club also offers people a way to do online investing in a secure manner.

Other debt consolidation options

There are other debt consolidation options, but the three options listed above are the best for many people. Other options include refinancing your home and withdrawing equity, making a withdrawal from your 401k or other retirement account, or getting a home equity loan (similar to a HELOC, but it is a one time loan and is not as flexible). These options present more drawbacks than the options listed above and can prove to be more expensive than they are worth.