Consolidation

MrsTinks

I'm going to be honest and say that yes for some consolidation works.

Because it does.

For most however it does not! It's a false sense of security because the pressure is suddenly off and you take your foot off the gas when all you've done is take a little urgency away or possibly saved a few pence. If you were further in your debt journey then maybe...

If you do go down this route (I'm aware that we may not dissuade you) then make sure you do NOT NOT NOT spend again on the cards you clear. This is critical. I'm going to buck the trend here and say don't cancel them because you may find once they're cleared they will start offering you 0% deals again... then they will serve a purpose when your other 0% deals end so you can over pay on any debt with an actual apr on it.

You have to be utterly utterly certain you will not spend again on these cards and that you will be over paying like a madman on the new loan though... otherwise you WILL end up falling off the wagon.

We're not saying this to be negative or kill joys - we're saying it because most of us have done it, we see it nearly every day and frankly we'd prefer if others could learn from our mistakes