GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — If you’re looking to add cleaning up your debt to your spring cleaning list, there are a couple of options available.
The first option is a balance transfer credit card. By transferring the balance on one or more credit cards to a new one, you can typically get 0% interest for a specific amount of time. The senior vice president of lending at Lake Trust Credit Union said that if you’re planning on paying it off quickly, this option can save you on interest and give you travel points or cashback.
“(These cards) tend to be on the market in two ways. One, when the country is showing that there’s a large amount of credit card debt. Credit card companies will take advantage of that to try to get those balances transferred and see some earnings there. And second, when times are good because the opportunity for people not to pay is lower so there’s less risk,” Andrea Mosher said.
The drawback to a balance transfer credit card is that some cards offer a transfer fee of up to 5%. Also, if you don’t pay it off during the 0% interest timeframe, you may end up paying more in interest than your previous card.
“If you think that there’s going to be challenges to making that timeframe work, you would be better off to look for a closed-end term loan, a personal term loan that could maybe spread that payment out over a longer period of time, lower your payments,” Moscher said, adding that you will pay interest on the loan, but it will be lower than if it was the interest on a balance transfer credit card.
A personal loan is an option to help consolidate a wide range of debt types and makes it easier to budget and work towards a specific payoff date.
For both avenues, you should read the details of your loan or credit card agreement. If you’re unsure of what’s best, reach out to a financial service from your bank or credit union.
