Are Credit Card Transfers as Good as Debt Consolidation?

What About Credit Card Debt Transfers Using Another Card?

Did you ever hear the one about the oilman whose house was on fire? He didn't have any water so he tried to put out the fire with oil. Well, oil was the only thing he had handy.

Credit cards are how most people find themselves in trouble with debt. It isn't because of a single car loan or a home mortgage most of the time. No, it's because of credit card debt. So, does it make sense that you can get yourself out of credit card debt by moving balances to another credit card? Sounds a lot like the oilman with a fire problem to us.

Many holders of credit card debt still have good credit. That's how they got so many credit card offers in the first place. And now that it has crept up to bite them on the rear, they think that some new credit card with a super low interest rate - and a tempting offer for balance transfers - will be the easy way to put out the fire figuratively speaking.

Beware of Balance Transfer Fees

There are many low interest credit card offers sent out to unwary consumers. They say things to get your attention, trumpeting their low interest rates, and suggesting you transfer higher interest balances to their card. Fantastic! Sounds like a solution, doesn't it? Well, before you believe it, you'd better turn the offer over and read the fine print. While some do allow balance transfers at those low rates, others get you by charging higher cash advance rates on balance transfers. Others get you by keeping other tricks hidden from you. For example, miss a single due date by even 24-hours and that balance transfer that once was at 16% has ballooned to 29%! You can find yourself in a worse state after the transfer than you were before.

Promotional Rates

Many credit card companies lure those with higher interest credit cards to switch through extremely low promotional interest rates. Not a good deal of say 8%, no, really, really low interest, like 0% or 1% or 3%. Right away many credit card holders with rates many times that are signing on the dotted line, transferring balances as fast as they can write those balance transfer "checks." Some even notice that the interest rebounds to 12% after six months. But they think they can beat the clock, maybe transfer again when another company send them a promotion. DON'T DO IT! It's a game most people can't win - and the credit card companies are betting on it!

Get a Solid Solution: Debt Consolidation

This is no time to gamble on credit card balance transfers. This is the time to seriously assess your situation and realize that it is a little bit bigger than you. After all, you're the one who managed to get in over your head. No offense, but an honest assessment would tell you that you could use the help of an expert. And not only that, how about an expert who can lend more than a helping hand, but lend you the money to pay off all of your credit cards without any tricks like promo introductory interest rates or rates that skyrocket if the mail happens to be slow.

No, what you need isn't a balance transfer. What you need is a balance eliminator. You need credit card debt consolidation. So, why put it off?