Credit Card Debt Blog

Mounting credit card bills can be a source of constant angst, frustration and stress. If you are a homeowner and have equity in your home, you may be considering, whether you should get a home equity loan to pay off your debts. The key to knowing when you are making a good decision is to assess the following:

How much credit card debt do you have?


Do you have $10,000, $20,000, $100,000 in credit card debts?

The amount of your credit card debt is directly related to your stress factor. It is difficult to keep up with credit card payments after you hit the $10,000 threshold.

How many credit cards do you have? Do you have 3, 4, 5 or 6 different credit cards? Are you receiving bills from Mastercard, Visa, Sears, Victoria secret, Home Depot, etc, every month? Having multiple creditors means often means that you are robbing Peter to pay Paul. You are spread thin and your monthly payments don't go very far.

How much equity do you have in your home?

You should get a home equity loan to consolidate credit card bills, if you have enough equity to cover your credit card bills and also enough to put away for a rainy day. In other words, if you have $20,000 in credit card bills and you can get a home equity loan for $30,000, use $20,00 towards your debts and save the rest.

Keep in mind that debt consolidation only works, if you change your spending habits so that you do not reaccumulate debt. You can do this by always asking yourself, whether you "need" or whether you "want" something.