Lake Superior University

When thinking about the different terms that are used in the topic of credit cards, one of the most mentioned and talked about is credit card debt consolidation. It’s true that credit cards have been very useful and convenient for us and we, in fact, treat the credit cards as a necessity.

However, with every good you have evil too. In the world of credit cards, ‘Credit card debt’ is that evil and ‘Credit card debt consolidation’ is often regarded as a medicine for treating credit card debt.

For the most part, anybody who has read any news on the topic of credit card debt party knows what a credit card debt consolidation consists of. But for the sake of those who have been hiding under a rock, any credit card debt consolidation is the process of putting all of your credit card debt from high interest cards onto a card with a low interest rate.

So the main benefits of consolidating your credit card debt is that you get a lower annual percentage rate which helps to keep the overall growth of your credit card debt reduced.Many people often say that this is the only benefit from consolidating your credit card debt.

I am going to show you though that there are some other benefits to this as well. You have probably seen many of these benefits publicized by suppliers of credit cards, but others you haven’t:

1. Initial APR: As mentioned above, lower APR is the biggest benefit from credit card debt consolidation. Since many credit card companies use this as a tool to lure you in, many companies will offer you a 0% APR for the first 6 to 9 months of your contract thereby allowing you to save a lot of money.

2. Standard APR: Your long-term annual percentage rate is another benefit that you are going to gain as it will be calculated at a lower rate as well. It is not a given that every credit card suppliers going to provide you with a lower standard APR for your consolidation, but there are many suppliers that provide the use programs with low APR’s. What you normally end up with is a trade-off between initial and standard APR rates.

3. 0% on purchases: This is another common benefit from credit card debt consolidation. These companies will offer this 0% interest rate, or just a really low rate, on purchases for an added incentive. These aren’t never a full-time benefit though, only for a limited time.

4. Easy management: You rarely hear of this debt consolidation benefit. However, one benefit of credit card debt consolidation (from multiple to single credit card) is the fact that you need to track and manage a lesser number of credit cards.

5. Other benefits: Many credit card companies, especially ones that are co branded, will offer you incentives such as rebates, discounts, and reward points as a measure to secure your business.