Most Americans have run up too much debt on their credit cards at one point or another in their lives. Whether it happens all of a sudden as the result of unexpected medical bills or another emergency, or it happens over time from a combination of too many new things or nights out on the town, the result is the same. If you can reign in your spending habits before your debt balloons out of control, you can usually repay your cards over time with some expenses cut from your monthly budget.

But many people lack the financial resources to eliminate credit card debt easily. If you fall into this category, and you haven't been able to negotiate credit card debt, it may be more beneficial to consolidate your credit card bills instead of paying each creditor off individually.

Why Consolidate?

Consolidation gives several different benefits for the borrower. You can get better interest rates when you consolidate. Depending on the size of your debt, just saving a few points on interest every year can add up to substantial savings by the time you’re done repaying the loan.

You also pay only one bill, making it easier to remember due dates and it makes your life simpler since you only write out one check a month. Even better, this one payment every month tends to be lower than the amount you would pay if you were paying back several different cards.

Finally, closing out some lines of credit can fix bad credit and improve your credit score. Be careful not to close out all your credit lines, you need these to continue to build credit. Also be careful not to close out so many credit lines that you’re using a large portion of your credit card debt. The percentage of your available credit in use accounts for close to thirty percent of your credit score.

There are several different ways you can go about consolidating your credit card debt.

Other Cards with Low Intro APR Offers

Perhaps the easiest way to consolidate your credit card debt is to put it all on a card with an introductory 0% APR on balance transfers.  This ensures that all the payments you’re making every month are going towards your principal and not the interest, letting you pay off the loan quicker.

You have to be careful of several things with this however.  Beware of the balance transfer fees most of these offers carry with them.  You will most likely be charged between 3 and 7 percent of the balance transferred.  However, even with this, if you get an intro APR for a year, you will have saved money.  Also make sure that you make all of your payments on time.  One late payment and most companies will reset your low 0% APR to the sky-high rate they assign for late payments.

If you’re far in debt (over $10,000), it may make sense to take out a loan on the equity you own in your house. These are secured loans backed by your property so you can usually obtain a much lower interest rate than you can with any form of unsecured loan. However, these loans may have significant fees at the start and if you have bad credit you may not be able to obtain them. You also need to make sure not to default on these loans, if you do default you’ll lose your house.

If you’re far in debt without any way out or any property to take a loan out against, two other options that you may be able to explore are getting a high risk personal loan or employing the services of a debt consolidation company. Debt consolidation companies work with your creditors to hopefully lower the interest rates on your credit card bills and also lower your monthly payments. Instead of writing a check to your credit card companies every month, you write your checks out to the debt consolidation company. It is many times the equivalent of an unsecured personal loan.

When choosing debt consolidation companies make sure to do your research. Your best bet will usually be to go with companies listed as non-profit. For profit debt consolidation companies may end up charging quite a bit in fees for their services. Also make sure the company is trusted and not a fly-by-night internet service. Companies that aren’t well established may not send the payment in to your credit card company in time and you’ll end up with more late fees on your account.

Finally, when you’re considering any of these actions, make sure you rip up the credit cards and cancel the accounts that you’ve combined.  This is especially true if you’re having trouble controlling your spending.  If you don’t, you may ultimately end up with more credit debt than you started with – your old debt that you consolidated and the new debt you’ve run up on your cards.

And as with anything, make sure you do your research and read all the fine print.