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Last Tuesday, I was working on a calculator project at AmeriSave when a team member mentioned they'd spent hours the night before comparing debt consolidation options online. They'd found multiple calculators but kept getting different results and didn't know which one to trust. The conversation stuck with me because it's something so many people struggle with.
According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Americans collectively owe $1.233 trillion on credit cards as of the third quarter of 2025, with average interest rates for cards accruing interest reaching 22.83%. That's not just a statistic. That's real families trying to figure out how to manage monthly payments that feel overwhelming.
When you're juggling multiple debt payments, there's often a smarter way forward. It starts with understanding whether consolidation actually makes sense for your specific situation. That's exactly what a debt consolidation calculator helps you figure out. Think of it like this: there's a right way and a wrong way to use these tools, and the difference can literally mean thousands of dollars.
A debt consolidation calculator isn't some magic solution that makes your debt disappear. What it does do is take all the information about your current debts and show you what would happen if you combined them into a single loan. You punch in your credit card balances, your interest rates, your monthly payments, and the calculator does the math to compare your current situation against potential consolidation options.
The most important thing the calculator reveals is something called the Annual Percentage Rate, or APR. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau emphasizes that APR represents the true cost of borrowing because it includes both your interest rate and any fees involved in getting the loan. When you're comparing your current debts to a consolidation loan, you're really comparing APRs. If your consolidation loan has a lower APR than the weighted average of what you're paying now, you might save money. If it doesn't, consolidation could actually cost you more in the long run.
The monthly payment amount isn't always the best indicator of whether consolidation is a good deal. I've seen calculators show lower monthly payments that look amazing on the surface, but when you calculate the total interest paid over the life of the loan, you end up paying significantly more. That happens when you extend your repayment period. Let's say you have three credit cards you're aggressively paying off over three years, but your consolidation loan stretches that to seven years. Sure, your monthly payment drops, but you're paying interest for four extra years.
The calculator also won't tell you about your emotional relationship with debt. Some people see their credit cards paid off through consolidation and immediately start running them back up. That's human nature, and it's something you need to think about before you consolidate. The numbers might work perfectly on paper, but if you're not addressing the underlying spending patterns, you could end up in an even worse position with a consolidation loan and maxed-out cards.
Let's talk about what's actually happening in the market today, because context matters. According to Federal Reserve data from August 2025, total consumer credit in the United States reached approximately $5.06 trillion. Credit card debt specifically has been climbing steadily. What does that mean for you? It means you're not alone in this situation, but it also means lenders know there's demand for consolidation products.
Personal loan interest rates for debt consolidation typically range from around 8% to 36% depending on your credit score, income, and other factors. If you've got good to excellent credit, generally 670 or higher, you might qualify for rates in the lower end of that range. For comparison, the average credit card APR for accounts accruing interest was 22.83% in the third quarter of 2025 according to Federal Reserve data. Do the math there. If you're carrying $15,000 in credit card debt at 22% interest and you qualify for a personal loan at 10%, you could potentially cut your interest costs in half.
But there's a catch. Many consolidation loans come with origination fees, typically ranging from 1% to 8% of your loan amount. That $15,000 loan with a 5% origination fee actually costs you $750 upfront. The calculator needs to factor that in when it's showing you whether consolidation saves money. Some calculators automatically include typical fees, others don't. You need to know what you're looking at.
I also want to talk about something most calculators won't explicitly show you: the impact on your credit utilization ratio. When you pay off your credit cards with a consolidation loan, your credit card utilization drops to zero, assuming you don't close the accounts. Since credit utilization accounts for about 30% of your credit score, this can actually boost your score over time. The hard inquiry from applying for the consolidation loan will temporarily ding your score by a few points. These are tradeoffs that matter in real life even if they don't show up in the calculator.
Using one of these calculators isn't complicated, but there's a process that'll give you the most accurate results. I'm going to walk you through this like I would if you were sitting here with me and we were figuring this out together.
First, gather all your debt statements. I mean all of them. Every credit card, every personal loan, every medical bill you're making payments on. You need the current balance, the interest rate, look for APR on your statement, and your minimum monthly payment for each one. Write these down. I know it feels overwhelming to see all the numbers in one place, but you can't make good decisions without knowing exactly where you stand.
Next, you'll enter each debt into the calculator. Most calculators have fields for multiple debts, sometimes up to 10 or 20 different accounts. Be precise with the numbers. Rounding $3,847 to $4,000 might not seem like a big deal, but when you're dealing with multiple debts and calculating interest over years, small differences add up.
The calculator will then show you your combined debt total, your weighted average interest rate across all debts, your total monthly payment, and how long it'll take to pay everything off if you keep making current payments. This is your baseline. Everything else you do in the calculator is comparing against this baseline to see if consolidation improves your situation.
Now you need to be realistic with yourself. Enter the interest rate you think you can qualify for on a consolidation loan. If you don't know, many calculators have tools to estimate based on your credit score. Don't be overly optimistic here. If you've got a 620 credit score, you're probably not getting a 7% rate. Maybe you're looking at 18% or 20%. Input realistic numbers or you're just fooling yourself.
Choose your repayment term. This is one of the most important decisions. A shorter term means higher monthly payments but less total interest. A longer term means lower monthly payments but more interest over time. The calculator will show you both options. Pay attention to the total amount paid line, not just the monthly payment. That total amount paid is what you're actually going to spend to get rid of this debt.
Most calculators will then give you a comparison showing your current path versus the consolidation path. Look for these key metrics: monthly payment difference, total interest savings or cost if consolidation is more expensive, time to debt freedom, and the effective APR of your consolidation loan including fees.
Run the numbers multiple times with different scenarios. What if you got a better interest rate? What if you shortened the term by a year? What if you only consolidated some of your debts and kept others separate? These calculators are tools for exploration. Play with the numbers until you understand how different choices affect your outcome.
Let me show you what this looks like with real numbers, because I think seeing an actual example makes this all click into place better than abstract explanations.
Let's say you have three credit cards:
Card 1: $8,000 balance at 24.99% APR with a minimum payment of $240/month
Card 2: $5,000 balance at 19.99% APR with a minimum payment of $150/month
Card 3: $3,500 balance at 22.49% APR with a minimum payment of $105/month
Your total debt is $16,500. Your total minimum monthly payment is $495. If you were to keep making minimum payments and nothing changed, you'd be paying on these cards for many years and you'd pay thousands in interest. The minimum payment on credit cards is intentionally structured to keep you in debt longer.
Now let's say you're considering a debt consolidation loan. You check with a few lenders and find that with your credit score of 690, you can qualify for a personal loan of $16,500 at 12.99% APR with a 5% origination fee over a five-year term.
First, let's calculate that origination fee. 5% of $16,500 is $825. So your actual loan amount needs to be $17,325 if you want $16,500 to pay off your cards, or you need to pay the $825 upfront out of pocket. Most lenders just add it to the loan.
Your monthly payment on a $17,325 loan at 12.99% over 60 months would be approximately $390. That's $105 less per month than your minimum payments across the three cards. Over five years, you'd pay a total of about $23,400. That breaks down to $17,325 in principal and about $6,075 in interest.
Now what if you kept your three separate cards but paid $495 per month, the same as your current minimum payments, and kept doing that until they were paid off? This gets complicated because as you pay down the balances, the minimum payment drops, but if you kept paying $495 total each month, you'd pay off all three cards in about 50 months and pay roughly $8,200 in total interest.
Wait. Stop. Did you catch that? If you keep your cards and pay $495 per month, you pay them off in about 50 months and pay $8,200 in interest. If you consolidate at the rate I mentioned and pay $390 per month, you pay them off in 60 months and pay $6,075 in interest. The consolidation saves you about $2,125 in interest but takes 10 months longer to pay off. And your monthly payment is $105 lower, which might give you breathing room in your budget.
But there's another scenario. What if you took that $105 monthly savings from consolidation and added it back to your consolidation loan payment? So instead of paying $390, you paid $495, the same you were paying before. Now you'd pay off the consolidation loan in about 43 months instead of 60, and your total interest would drop to around $4,500. That's a savings of nearly $3,700 compared to keeping the cards.
This is why the calculator is so valuable. You can play with these scenarios and see exactly what happens with your money. You can adjust the interest rate, the loan term, and the payment amount to find the sweet spot that works for your situation.
Let's say instead of a personal loan, you got a 0% balance transfer credit card with a 21-month promotional period and a 3% transfer fee. The fee on $16,500 would be $495, so you'd owe $16,995 total. If you divided that by 21 months, you'd need to pay $810 per month to pay it off before the promotional rate expires. That's $315 more per month than your minimum payments across the three original cards. Could you afford that? If yes, you'd save almost all the interest, just the $495 fee. If no, you'd need to calculate what happens to the remaining balance when the 0% rate expires and the regular APR kicks in, which might be 23% or higher.
The point is this: the best consolidation method for you depends entirely on your specific numbers, what you qualify for, and what you can afford to pay each month. The calculator shows you the math, but you have to make the judgment call about what's realistic for your life.
I'm not going to make this sound better than it is. Not everyone should consolidate their debts, and anyone who says otherwise is probably trying to sell you something. Let me show you some real-life examples.
If you have a lot of debts with high interest rates and can get a much lower rate on a single loan, it makes sense to consolidate. It's a big deal if all of your credit cards have a 24% APR and you can get a personal loan with a 12% APR. If you keep the same payment amount, you'll pay less interest and pay off your debt faster. Plus, you'll only have to make one payment instead of having to deal with multiple due dates.
It also makes sense if you're organized enough to keep your credit cards from getting too high. I can't say this enough. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says this could happen. When you combine your cards, all of them are paid off and show zero balances. Then you can use all that credit again. If you don't keep your cool, you could end up with both the consolidation loan and new credit card debt. That's worse than where you began.
If you have trouble keeping track of several payments and due dates, consolidation can help. Not paying your bills on time hurts your credit and costs you late fees. Even if the interest savings aren't huge, it's worth it if combining your payments into one helps you stay on top of things.
Now let's talk about when it doesn't make sense to consolidate. If the interest rate on your consolidation loan is higher than what you're already paying, don't take it. Some people have such bad credit that they can only get loans with interest rates of 30% or more. If your credit cards charge an average of 22% and you're being offered 32%, consolidation is hurting you.
If you plan to pay off your debt quickly anyway, don't consolidate. If you owe $5,000 and are about to get a tax refund or work bonus that will pay it off in the next few months, the fees for consolidating will cost you more than just paying it off directly. If you need the lower monthly payment to free up cash flow in the short term, this might not be the case.
When you combine unsecured debt like credit cards with secured debt like a home equity loan, you should be very careful. I see this error too often. Yes, home equity loans and lines of credit usually have lower interest rates. But if you can't pay your debts, your house is now at risk because you put it up as collateral. Credit card companies can hurt your credit and sue you, but they can't take your home. They can. That's a big difference.
If you're thinking about using your home equity to consolidate debt through a cash-out refinance or HELOC, you need to be sure you can make the payments. When homeowners ask us at AmeriSave about using home equity to pay off debt, we go over all the pros and cons with them because this choice could affect their housing security.
If the only way to make it work is to greatly extend the time you have to pay it back, don't consolidate. If you've been paying off your credit cards for two years and the consolidation calculator says you can make a great monthly payment over ten years, look at the total interest amount. You could be paying thousands more just to have a lower monthly payment. If you really need lower payments to get by, you might have to make that tradeoff. But don't fool yourself into thinking it's a good deal.
When most people think of debt consolidation, they think of getting a personal loan from a bank or an online lender to pay off their credit cards. That's one way to consolidate, and it's often a good one, but it's not the only way. Let me show you the main ways that people really use, since one might work better for you than the others.
Getting a personal loan from a bank, credit union, or online lender is probably the easiest way to consolidate. You don't have to put up collateral for these loans, so they are usually unsecured. You borrow a set amount, pay a set interest rate, and make set monthly payments for a set amount of time, usually between two and seven years. The good thing about this is that it is simple and easy to understand. You know exactly how much you will pay each month and when you will be done. The downside is that if your credit isn't great, the interest rate might not be much better than what you're already paying on your credit cards.
Another popular choice, especially for people with good credit, is a balance transfer credit card. According to research on current market offerings, these cards have promotional periods that last 15 to 21 months. During these times, you don't have to pay interest on balances you transfer from other cards. You won't have to pay any interest if you pay off your debt during the promotional period. But there's a problem. Most balance transfer cards charge a fee of 3% to 5% of the amount you move. That's $300 to $500 right away if you're moving $10,000. If you don't pay off the balance before the promotional period ends, you'll have to pay a regular credit card APR on the rest, which is usually between 20% and 25%.
Home equity loans and home equity lines of credit are in a whole different category. If you own a home and have built up some equity, you can borrow against that equity at lower rates than personal loans or credit cards. As I said before, this turns unsecured debt into secured debt, which means your home is now collateral. You could lose your home if you don't make your payments on time. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau warns about this risk in particular. They say that even though home equity products may have lower interest rates, the consequences of default are much worse.
Cash-out refinancing is similar but not quite the same. Instead of getting a second loan on your home, you refinance your current mortgage for more than you owe and get the difference in cash. You could use that money to pay off credit cards and other bills. If you're refinancing anyway and can get a good rate, this might make sense. But you're turning short-term debt into a 15- or 30-year mortgage. You might have to pay for that kitchen remodel you put on your credit card two years ago for the next thirty years as part of your mortgage. That's not always a bad thing, but you need to know what you're doing.
At AmeriSave, we help homeowners figure out if refinancing their home and adding other debts to it really helps them reach their long-term financial goals or if it just puts off the inevitable.
Another option is to get a debt management plan through a nonprofit credit counseling group. These are not loans. Instead, a credit counselor talks to your creditors to get them to lower your interest rates and maybe even waive fees. You pay the credit counseling agency once a month, and they send the money to your creditors according to the plan you made with them. These plans usually take three to five years to finish. The good thing is that you don't have to take on new debt, and the fees are usually lower than what for-profit debt consolidation companies charge. The downside is that you usually have to close your credit card accounts as part of the deal. This can change your credit utilization ratio, which can hurt your credit score.
Some people also pay off their debts with loans or savings from their retirement accounts. According to the CFPB, this is pretty clear: it's dangerous. Taking money out of a 401k means taking money you'll need for retirement. Plus, if you leave your job or get fired, the whole loan is due right away. If you can't pay it back, it's seen as an early withdrawal and you have to pay taxes and fees. Many financial experts strongly advise against this method unless there is a very serious need.
When you use a debt consolidation calculator, each of these methods will give you different results. The calculator won't tell you which way to go based on your life situation. It will only show you the math. You should also think about things that aren't money-related, like how much risk you're willing to take, how disciplined you are, how secure your job is, whether you own a home, and what your long-term financial goals are.
I've been working on financial tools for years and talking to coworkers who help people make these kinds of decisions. I've seen the same mistakes happen over and over again. Let me help you avoid these common mistakes.
The biggest mistake is not adding up all the fees. Some calculators automatically include origination fees, while others don't. You need to know what kind you're using. I've seen people get excited about consolidation when the calculator results didn't include a 6% origination fee. When they actually applied for the loan and saw the real numbers, the deal wasn't as good as they had thought it would be.
Using your current minimum payment as a point of comparison is another big mistake. Minimum payments on credit cards are meant to keep you in debt for as long as possible while still following the terms of your agreement. Usually, they're figured out as a percentage of your balance plus any fees. This is usually 2% to 3% of the balance each month. Your minimum payment goes down as your balance goes down. But if you only pay the minimum, you'll end up paying the most interest for the longest time. You can't just look at the monthly payment amount when comparing a consolidation loan with a fixed payment. You also need to look at the total interest paid and the time it takes to pay it off.
People also often forget how their behavior will change after they consolidate. It's not a problem with the calculator; it's a problem with people. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's research on debt settlement and credit counseling shows that a lot of people who consolidate their debt end up getting more debt later. The calculator can't tell you if you'll keep your credit cards at zero balances or if you'll start charging again. Be honest with yourself. If you've already paid off your cards and then used them again, what's different this time? Do you have a plan for how to spend your money? Have you looked at the ways you spent money that got you into debt? If not, consolidation is only a short-term fix.
Not thinking about how it will affect your credit score is another mistake. When you ask for a consolidation loan, the lender looks at your credit report very closely. That usually lowers your score by a few points for a short time. If you want to get a mortgage or car loan soon, the timing is important. Your score may go up over the next few months if consolidation helps you pay off credit cards and lowers your credit utilization ratio. Most calculators don't show how your credit score affects your finances because they are focused on the math.
I also see people comparing options without really thinking about the loan terms. You might see a three-year loan at 10% and a seven-year loan at 9% on a calculator. You might think the 9% loan is better because it has a lower rate. But the longer term means paying more interest overall, even at the lower rate. If you don't really need the lower monthly payment that comes with the longer term, the shorter loan is probably better for you, even though the rate is a little higher.
Some people also forget about the fees for paying early. These days, most personal loans don't have penalties for paying them off early, but some do. A prepayment penalty could cost you if you take out a five-year consolidation loan and then get some money and want to pay it off early. Don't just look at the calculator results; look at the loan terms too.
A lot of the time, people don't use the calculator to make decisions; they use it to confirm what they already believe. They've already made up their minds to consolidate, so they type in numbers that make consolidation look good. Or they think consolidation is a scam, so they focus on the worst possible outcomes. When you use the calculator, it's most useful when you're really interested in finding out what's best for you, not when you're trying to make a point you've already made.
Let's be honest about credit scores because they can help or hurt your options for consolidation. I've heard coworkers talk about people who were upset because the calculator said they could save $200 a month, but when they actually applied for a loan, they either didn't qualify or the interest rate they were offered was very different from what they had hoped for.
Most lenders use FICO scores as their standard, and credit scores usually range from 300 to 850. In the lending industry, these are the general categories: 800 and above is exceptional, 740–799 is very good, 670–739 is good, 580–669 is fair, and below 580 is poor. Depending on where you fall in these ranges, you may have different options for consolidation and at different prices.
You are in charge if you have good credit, which is 740 or higher. Depending on the lender and the market, you may be able to get personal loans with interest rates between 7% and 12%. You might be able to get 0% balance transfer credit cards with long promotional periods. You might be able to get home equity products with rates that are very competitive. Because your credit is good, the debt consolidation calculator will show you some good options. Your main job is to look at those options and see which one works best for your financial goals.
If your credit score is between 670 and 739, you're still in good shape. The interest rates on personal loans could be between 10% and 18%. You might be able to get balance transfer cards, but not the best deals. If you own a home and have equity in it, you probably still qualify for home equity products. The calculator will still show you ways to save money by combining debts, but the savings might not be as big as they would be for someone with a higher score.
580-669 is the range for fair credit, which is where things get hard. Rates on personal loans could be as high as 28% or more. Balance transfer cards might not be available, or if they are, they might charge fees for balance transfers and have shorter promotional periods. You might not be able to get home equity products at all, or you might only be able to get them with higher rates and stricter terms. You need to be very careful about the interest rate you enter when you use a debt consolidation calculator at this credit level. If your credit cards have a 24% interest rate and you can only get a personal loan with a 26% interest rate, consolidation isn't going to help your interest rate situation. The only good thing might be that there is only one payment.
If your credit score is below 580, you have very few options. A lot of traditional lenders won't even talk to you. If you can find a lender, they might charge rates of 30% or more, which could be worse than what you pay on your current credit card. Some people with this credit score end up getting secured loans, where they put up something of value like a car, or predatory loans that make things worse. If you're in this range, a debt management plan through a nonprofit credit counseling agency might be better than a regular consolidation loan because they talk to your creditors directly to get better rates instead of using your credit score.
Your credit score has an effect on more than just whether you can get a loan and what rate you get. It also has an effect on the amounts of loans you can get. If you have a 750 credit score, you might be able to get a loan for debt consolidation of up to $50,000 or even $100,000. Even if they have $30,000 in debt they want to consolidate, someone with a 630 score might only be able to get $15,000 or $20,000. If the loan amount you can get doesn't cover all of your debts, you'll have to do partial consolidation, which makes things more complicated.
Your debt-to-income ratio is also a factor, and it's different from your credit score but related to it. The Federal Reserve looked at lending standards and found that most personal loan lenders want to see your total debt payments, including the new loan, stay below 40–50% of your gross monthly income. You might not be able to consolidate your debt even if you have a good credit score if your income is low compared to your debt load.
When you look into your consolidation options is also important. Your credit score is going down every month if you are missing payments or have accounts that are past due. If you wait too long to look into consolidation, you might end up in a lower credit tier and lose access to better options. If you've recently had a big credit event like a bankruptcy or foreclosure, though, most lenders will want to see several years of good credit history before giving you good rates, even if your score has started to go up.
One thing I want to stress is that you shouldn't think you know what your credit score is. Look at it. You can get free credit reports from the three biggest bureaus once a year at AnnualCreditReport.com. Many credit card companies and banks also offer free FICO score monitoring. It's a good idea to check your real FICO score before you start planning to consolidate, because the score you see on a free credit monitoring app might be based on a different scoring model than what lenders use.
You might need to work on improving your credit score first if it is keeping you from getting good consolidation options. That means paying all your bills on time, lowering your credit card balances to lower your utilization ratio, and waiting a while after any bad things happen. Sometimes the best thing to do is to work on your credit for six months to a year before trying to consolidate. The lower interest rate could save you thousands of dollars over the life of the loan.
People often want to move right away when they use a debt consolidation calculator and see that they could save money. I understand. You want relief right away when you're stressed about debt. But knowing the realistic timeline for consolidation can help you plan ahead and avoid making mistakes.
People usually don't expect it to take as long as it does to shop for a consolidation loan. You should get quotes from at least three to five lenders so you can compare their rates, terms, and fees. A soft credit check, which doesn't hurt your score, might only take a few minutes for each lender. A full underwriting decision could take a few days. Most online lenders can make a decision in a few business days. Traditional banks, on the other hand, might take a week or two. Credit unions are often in the middle.
Federal law says that there is usually a right of rescission period after you accept a loan offer and get approved. This is especially true for home equity loans. This is a time to think things over. You can cancel the loan if you want to. This could be three days for personal loans. Usually, it takes three business days for home equity products. You can't get to the money yet during this time.
After that time, the timeline for getting the money changes from lender to lender. Some lenders on the internet can put money into your bank account within one business day. Some people might take three to five business days. It could take up to two weeks for traditional banks to approve a loan and then give you the money. While you wait, you still have to make the minimum payments on your current debts. If you miss payments while you wait for your consolidation loan to go through, your credit will be hurt and you may have to pay late fees.
Some lenders do this automatically, so once the money is in your account or the lender has paid your creditors directly, you need to check that all of your old debts are really paid off. This is a big deal. I've heard of times when there was a mistake and a credit card bill didn't get paid or only got partially paid. You'll have problems if you stop making payments because you think everything is taken care of when it isn't. Make sure that all of your accounts have zero balances.
It takes time for the benefits to show up in your credit report after consolidation. The hard inquiry and new account could actually lower your credit score at first. It usually takes 30 to 60 days for closed or paid-off accounts to show up on your credit report, according to credit reporting standards. Your credit utilization ratio goes up, which should start to raise your score, but it won't happen right away.
The timeline is a little different if you're using a balance transfer credit card to combine debts. After you get approved, the transfer process usually takes 7 to 14 days. You still have to make payments on your current cards during that time. People have missed payments because they thought the transfer would be instant. No, it's not. Until you get confirmation that the balances have been moved and the cards show zero balances, always make your payments on the old cards.
Home equity products take the longest because they are loans that are backed by your property. You're going to have to go through the whole mortgage process, which includes an appraisal, title work, and closing. It could take 30 to 45 days from the time you apply until you get the money. A home equity loan might not be fast enough to help you if you need to consolidate your debts right away to avoid missing payments.
You should also think about when your billing cycles are. If you consolidate right after making the minimum payments on all your credit cards, you've already paid for that month and then paid off the balances right away. This means that the payment you just made won't help you. If you can, consolidate just before your billing cycle dates so that the consolidation loan pays off the balance right before you would have had to make your next minimum payment.
After you consolidate, you need to keep up the discipline of making your new loan payment every month. This is a commitment that will last for several years. With a five-year loan, you have to make 60 payments in a row every month. A loan for seven years means 84 payments. When you see that the calculator says you'll have a lower monthly payment for seven years, think about whether you're sure you can stick to that payment plan for the whole time. Life changes. Changes in income. Things that cost more than you thought they would happen. If everything goes according to plan, the calculator will show you the math. However, you should think about whether the timeline is realistic for your life.
When calculators give unexpected results, these are some common situations.
I've seen some situations over the years where the debt consolidation calculator gives results that surprise people. Let me go over a few of these situations with you because they might be similar to yours.
The first surprising situation is when someone has a lot of credit cards with low balances and different interest rates. For example, you have five credit cards: two with $1,000 balances at 19%, two with $1,500 balances at 24%, and one with $3,000 balance at 21%. You owe $9,000 in total. When you use a calculator to compare this to a consolidation loan with a 14% interest rate over three years, you might find that the savings aren't as big as you thought they would be.
Why? If you used the debt avalanche method, which means paying extra on the highest-rate card first, you would pay off the lower-balance cards fairly quickly. Also, the part of your debt that is really hurting you might not be big enough to make consolidation fees worth it. In some of these mixed situations, it might be better to only combine some of your debts and pay off the rest of them quickly on their own.
Another surprising situation is when someone is about to pay off their debt anyway. If you've been paying off credit card debt for two years and only have $4,000 left, and you're on track to be debt-free in 18 months, consolidation might not be the best option. The origination fee for a new loan could be between $200 and $400, and the interest savings over 18 months might not be worth that cost. If you pay attention to the total cost comparison, the calculator will show you this. However, some people only look at the monthly payment and miss it.
I've also seen calculators show that partial consolidation is better than full consolidation. You owe $15,000 on credit cards with high interest rates and $8,000 on a car loan with 6% interest. It might make sense to combine all $23,000 for the sake of simplicity. But when you do the math, adding that low-interest car loan to your consolidation actually raises your average rate and costs you money. The calculator will show you that if you only pay off your credit card debt and keep your car loan separate, you will save more money.
Another interesting situation comes up with medical debt that is very high. If you have a payment plan with the hospital or provider, your medical debt usually doesn't accrue interest. I've seen people quickly combine $20,000 in medical debt into a personal loan with a 15% interest rate, not knowing that they were already paying 0% on the medical debt. They didn't have to pay interest before, but now they do. The calculator thinks that everything you type in costs you money, but that's not always the case with debt. Before you consolidate, you need to know how much you're really paying on each debt.
A cash-out refinance may look better in the calculator than it really is in real life. If you have $15,000 in credit card debt with an average APR of 20%, you might want to refinance your mortgage to get that money and pay off the cards. You could refinance your current mortgage of $250,000 at 4.5% to $265,000 at 6.5% in the current market. The calculator might show that the total interest is lower, but you're taking out unsecured debt and using your home as collateral. You're also starting over with your mortgage. If you refinance your mortgage after 10 years, you will now be paying off your credit card debt over 30 years instead of the 3 to 5 years it would take with a personal loan. Even though the rate is lower, the total interest might be higher when you look at the whole timeline. If you don't set up the calculator just right, it won't always pick up on this subtlety.
Consolidating student loans can lead to some surprising situations. Federal student loans come with special perks, such as income-driven repayment plans and possible forgiveness programs. You will lose those benefits for good if you combine your federal loans into a private consolidation loan. The calculator might show you a lower interest rate and monthly payment, but it can't take into account the fact that you just gave up the chance to have your loan forgiven. The CFPB says that this is one of the most common and expensive mistakes people make when they consolidate their student loans.
Short promotional rate periods on balance transfer cards also make math surprising. A 0% APR for 15 months sounds great, but if you have $15,000 in debt and can only afford to pay $500 a month, you'll only pay off $7,500 during the promotional period. The rest of the $7,500 goes up to whatever the normal APR is, which is usually between 22% and 25%. If you use a calculator to figure this out, it might actually cost more over the course of the loan than just getting a personal loan at 12% and paying it off steadily.
Even small amounts of debt can give you strange results when you use a calculator. If you owe $2,000 on a few credit cards, it usually doesn't make sense to combine them. The fees for getting the loan take away any savings on interest. You should just buckle down and pay off the $2,000 over the next 6 to 12 months. But some people think that consolidation will solve all of their debt problems, no matter how much they owe.
People are most surprised when the calculator says that doing nothing is the best thing to do. If you're already on track to pay off your debt in a reasonable amount of time, your interest rates aren't too high, and you don't qualify for much better consolidation terms, the calculator might show that you're on the right track. People want to consolidate even when the numbers say they shouldn't because they want a fresh start. The calculator is there to show you reality, but you have to be willing to accept what it tells you.
This is where a lot of people either succeed or end up back in debt, so let me tell you what your life will really be like after you consolidate. The calculator gives you the numbers that come before consolidation, but not the part that comes after that.
First, you need to figure out what to do with your credit cards that you have paid off. It sounds like a small choice, but it's a big one. Credit experts usually say that you should keep your accounts open but not use them. Closing credit cards lowers the amount of credit you have available, which can raise your credit utilization ratio and hurt your credit score. But you have to be disciplined to keep them open and available. You need to be able to look at a credit card with a $5,000 limit and see that it has no balance and not think, "Oh good, I have $5,000 to spend."
Some people break the cards but leave the accounts open. Some people keep them in a drawer or a safe. A few people I've heard about literally froze their cards in a block of ice in their freezer. The idea is to make the cards hard enough to get to that you won't use them for impulse buys, but they're still technically available in case of a real emergency. No matter how you do it, the goal is to not give in to the urge to take on more debt.
You also need to deal with the things that got you into debt in the first place. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's research on debt relief shows that consolidating debt without changing your habits can often lead to even more debt. Consolidation won't help if you got into credit card debt because you were spending more than you made. Consolidating your debt will help with the debt you already have, but it won't protect you from future medical bills. If you got into debt because you lost your job or had to cut back on your income, you need to rebuild your emergency fund now that you have more money coming in from the lower consolidated payment.
After consolidation, making a budget that makes sense is very important. If your consolidated payment is less than what you were paying before, you have more money coming in. What are you going to do with the money you have left over? It's a good idea to either add it back to your consolidation loan so you can pay it off faster or set up an emergency fund so you don't have to use credit cards the next time something unexpected happens. It may be tempting to think of it as extra money and spend more on your lifestyle, but that's a bad idea. That's how you get a consolidation loan and more credit card debt a year later.
After you consolidate, your credit report will change, and you need to keep an eye on this. The accounts that have been paid off should have $0 balances. There should be a new account for the new consolidation loan. Your credit usage should get a lot better. If you make your new loan payment on time every month, your score should start to go up, but it might take a few months for these changes to show up. You may need to dispute mistakes on your credit report if you don't see the changes you were hoping for.
After you consolidate your loans, the best thing you can do is set up automatic payments for them. The Federal Reserve's data on loan performance shows that borrowers who set up automatic payments are less likely to default. It makes it impossible to forget a payment or get the due date wrong. Setting up autopay usually gets you a small discount on your interest rate, usually 0.25%. That's not a lot, but it adds up over the course of a five-year loan.
Changes in your life after consolidation could make it harder for you to make payments. You could get a new job, move, get married or divorced, have kids, or have health problems. Your consolidation loan isn't as flexible as the minimum payments on your credit cards. You can't change that payment amount. You can't just pay less if your income goes down a lot, like you could with credit card minimum payments. Unlike student loans or mortgages, most personal loans don't come with built-in options for forbearance or deferment. If you don't pay your bills on time, you're in default, which hurts your credit and could lead to collections or a lawsuit. This is why I always tell people to be careful when they choose how long their loan will last and how much they will pay. Choose something you can keep doing even if things change.
When you get extra money after consolidating, like a tax refund, a work bonus, an inheritance, or something else, you need to decide whether to pay off your consolidation loan or save it. There isn't a single right answer, but in general, if you don't have an emergency fund that can cover at least three months' worth of expenses, building that fund should come first. You can pay off your loan faster and save money on interest if you have that extra money.
If their credit score goes up a lot or interest rates go down, some people refinance their consolidation loan. This is like putting all of your consolidations together. You can pay off an old loan with a new one at better terms because most personal loans don't have prepayment penalties. But you're going through the whole thing again, including the fees to start it. Use a calculator to figure out if the savings are worth the time and money spent.
People react differently to the psychological effects of having a consolidation loan instead of several credit card debts. Having one payment and a clear end date makes some people feel very relieved. They can see that things are getting better every month as the balance goes down. Some people miss the freedom that comes with being able to handle multiple cards and minimum payments. If you were someone who paid different amounts on different cards each month based on how much money you had, the fixed payment on a consolidation loan might seem too rigid. You need to be honest with yourself about how you'll deal with this mentally.
Lastly, you should think about what will happen when you pay off the loan for the consolidation. You took out a $20,000 loan for five years and paid $400 a month. Five years later, you make your last payment. You have an extra $400 a month in your budget now. What are you going to do with it? People who end up doing well with their money usually put that money toward their next goal, like saving for retirement, a down payment on a house, or college. People who get back into debt often let their spending creep up to fill the gap. Even though this endpoint is years away, thinking about it now will help you keep the right mindset during the consolidation loan.
It's important to me that you know exactly what AmeriSave does and doesn't do. We are a mortgage company, so we help people with home equity loans, mortgage loans, refinances, and home equity lines of credit. We don't give out personal loans or credit cards to help people pay off their debts.
If you own a home and have equity in it, though, your home itself might be the best way to combine your debts. Let me tell you when this makes sense and when it doesn't.
When you do a cash-out refinance with AmeriSave, you get a new, bigger mortgage to replace your old one and get the difference in cash. If your home is worth $300,000 and you owe $200,000 on it, you might be able to refinance for $240,000, use $200,000 to pay off your current mortgage, and then have $40,000 in cash to pay off credit cards, medical bills, or other debts, minus closing costs. The good thing is that mortgage rates are usually much lower than rates on credit cards or personal loans. Mortgage rates are higher now than they were a few years ago, but they're still usually lower than the 20–25% you're paying on credit cards.
The numbers on a cash-out refinance calculator can look very good. Let's say you owe $30,000 in different debts that all have an average interest rate of 20%. You pay $800 a month on those debts. If you add that to your mortgage at 6.5% and stretch it out over 30 years, your monthly payment might only go up by $200 to $300. That looks like a big win for your monthly cash flow.
But you need to know that you're taking out a loan that could have been paid off in 3 to 5 years and spreading it out over 30 years. Yes, the rate is lower. Yes, the monthly payment is easier to handle. But over 30 years, the total interest could be more than if you had just paid off the debt right away. Also, you're now using your home as collateral for that debt. It hurts your credit if you don't pay your credit cards on time. If you don't pay your mortgage on time, you could lose your house.
When homeowners ask us about using a cash-out refinance to pay off their debts, we are honest about the pros and cons. It's the right thing to do sometimes. It can save your life if you have a lot of high-interest debt and need some time to get back on your feet. Just make sure you can handle the mortgage payment. We've helped people who were months behind on a lot of bills combine them into one easy-to-manage payment so they don't have to file for bankruptcy.
Sometimes we tell people that it's probably not the best way to go. You might be better off with a home equity loan or HELOC instead of a full refinance if your current mortgage has a good rate and you would be refinancing into a higher rate. If you're close to paying off your current debts or your income isn't stable, it might not be worth it to put your home at risk.
A cash-out refinance is not the same as a home equity line of credit (HELOC). A HELOC lets you keep your current mortgage and get a second loan that works like a credit card but is backed by your home. Your available equity determines your credit limit, and you can borrow up to that limit. During a draw period, which is usually 10 years, you only pay interest. After that, the balance becomes due or changes to principal and interest payments. A HELOC is a good way to consolidate debt because it doesn't change your current mortgage and you only borrow what you need. The downside is that HELOCs usually have variable interest rates, which means your payment could go up if rates go up.
Home equity loans are like these but easier: you get a set amount of money at a set interest rate for a set amount of time, usually 10 to 20 years. This might be cleaner than a HELOC if you know exactly how much debt you need to pay off and want your payments to be the same every month.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says that you should never use home equity to pay off unsecured debt unless you are completely sure that you can keep up with the new payment. This isn't just being careful with the rules. The truth is that a lot of people lost their homes during the 2008 financial crisis because they used the equity in their homes to pay off debts, then lost their jobs or had their income cut, and couldn't keep up with the payments.
Our technology platform at AmeriSave makes it easy to look into these options. You can see rate quotes, use calculators to compare different situations, and get prequalified without having to have a hard credit check. But you still need to think carefully about whether using your home equity to pay off debt is in line with your long-term financial security.
One more thing about the AmeriSave method: we’re open about how much things cost. There are closing costs for cash-out refinances and home equity loans. Costs for appraisals, title insurance, recording, and more. Most of the time, these costs are between 2% and 5% of the amount of your loan. This means that if you refinance your home for $250,000 in cash, you could pay $5,000 to $12,500 in closing costs. Some people add these costs to the loan, which means you borrow even more and pay interest on the closing costs for 30 years. Some people pay for them themselves. No matter what, you need to include these costs in your consolidation calculator to get the right numbers.
In the end, AmeriSave can help you consolidate your debt if you own a home and have equity in it, but only if you've thought about the risks and benefits of using that equity. We can't help everyone with their debt consolidation needs, but mortgage-based consolidation products can help you save money on interest and payments in the right situation.
Debt consolidation calculators are useful, but they only work if you know how to use them and what the results really mean. You can use a calculator to figure out the math behind combining your debts into one payment, compare interest rates and total costs, and guess how long it will take you to pay them all off. It can't tell you if you have the self-control to not take on more debt after consolidating, if your job is stable enough to handle a fixed payment for years, or if the emotional relief of one payment is worth the slightly higher total cost.
The most important thing I've learned from making financial tools is that numbers only tell part of the story. You need to know how you handle money, how much risk you're willing to take, and what your long-term goals are. If you're thinking about consolidating your debts, use the calculator to get started, but don't stop there. Try out several scenarios. Look at different ways to consolidate. Take into account all the costs and fees. Think about your life and whether you can handle the payment plan.
Just take a breath. When you're looking at a lot of debt statements and trying to figure out the best way to move forward, financial stress can feel like too much. You're already on the right track because you're reading this and learning about consolidation calculators. You're learning about your finances, weighing your options, and making smart decisions. That's exactly what you need to do.
You can consolidate your debts with a personal loan, a balance transfer card, home equity, or a debt management plan. Or you can decide that consolidation isn't right for you and pay off your debts one at a time. Just make sure your choice is based on accurate numbers and realistic ideas about your situation. Use the calculator to see what your options are, but trust your gut when it comes to making the choice that will help you succeed financially in the long run.
Federal Reserve Bank of New York. (2025). Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit: 2025 Q3. Retrieved from https://www.newyorkfed.org/microeconomics/hhdc.html
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. (2025). Consumer Credit - G.19. Retrieved from https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g19/current/
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. (2025). Why Has Consumer Spending Remained So Resilient? Evidence from Credit Card Data. Retrieved from https://www.bostonfed.org/publications/current-policy-perspectives/2025/why-has-consumer-spending-remained-resilient.aspx
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. (2023). What do I need to know about consolidating my credit card debt? Retrieved from https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/what-do-i-need-to-know-if-im-thinking-about-consolidating-my-credit-card-debt-en-1861/
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. (2025). What is the difference between credit counseling and debt settlement, debt consolidation, or credit repair? Retrieved from https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/what-is-the-difference-between-credit-counseling-and-debt-settlement-debt-consolidation-or-credit-repair-en-1449/
Federal Trade Commission. (2018). How To Get Out of Debt. Consumer Information. Retrieved from https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-get-out-debt
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. (2024). Should I consolidate or refinance my student loans? Retrieved from https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/should-i-consolidate-refinance-student-loans-en-561/
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. (2024). I've seen a lot of advertisements for companies that consolidate credit card debt. Are these legitimate? Retrieved from https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/ive-seen-a-lot-of-advertisements-for-companies-that-consolidate-credit-card-debt-are-these-legitimate-en-1859/
Federal Reserve Board. (2025). Financial Stability Report: Borrowing by Businesses and Households. Retrieved from https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/April-2025-financial-stability-report-Borrowing-by-Businesses-and-Households.htm
Most of the time, debt consolidation calculators do the math right. You will get the right monthly payments, total interest, and payoff timelines if you enter the right numbers. The problem is that how accurate your results are depends entirely on how accurate your inputs are. If you guess what your credit card interest rates are instead of looking them up, or if you enter an interest rate for a consolidation loan that you won't actually qualify for, your results won't be accurate.
Calculators can't tell you things like whether you'll get more credit card debt after consolidating or whether you'll make extra payments to pay off your loan faster. Don't use calculators as guarantees of what will happen; instead, use them as planning tools that show you what is mathematically possible. When using a calculator, make sure you have your real debt statements in front of you. Also, be careful when guessing what interest rate you'll get on a consolidation loan. It's better to guess too high and be pleasantly surprised than to guess too low and be disappointed when you apply.
Using a debt consolidation calculator won't hurt your credit score because it's just math, not a financial transaction. The calculator can help you make choices that do have an effect on your credit. If the calculator says that consolidation would help you pay off credit cards with high balances, which would lower your credit utilization ratio, that could help your score over time.
Credit utilization is the percentage of available credit that you are using. For good credit scores, it is usually best to keep this number below 30%. When you consolidate your credit cards and pay them off, you keep the accounts open. This means that your available credit stays high while your balances drop to zero, which lowers your utilization by a lot. On the other hand, the calculator might show that a consolidation loan has a longer repayment period, which means you'll have debt for more years, which could keep your score low.
The calculator shows you how these trade-offs work with numbers. Remember that applying for a consolidation loan will lower your score for a short time because of the hard credit inquiry. However, if consolidation helps you make all of your payments on time and lowers your overall debt load, your score should go up in the months that follow. The calculator can show you how much interest you can save and how long it will take, but you need to think about the bigger picture of your credit on its own.
It all depends on your goals and situation. You should usually include all of your high-interest, unsecured debts, such as credit cards, personal loans, and medical bills. These are the debts that are most likely to save you money if you consolidate them because they usually have interest rates of 15% to 20% or more. You should probably leave out debts with low interest rates, like federal student loans with rates below 5%, car loans with competitive rates, or any debt that already has a low fixed rate. That's because putting low-interest debt together into a higher-rate consolidation loan costs you money.
Try out different combinations on the calculator several times to find the one that saves you the most. Try it once with all of your debts, and then again with just your highest-rate debts. Look at how much interest you would pay in each case. In some cases, partial consolidation, where you only combine some debts and keep paying others separately, gives you the best math result. Also think about whether some of your debts have special benefits that you would lose if you combined them. Federal student loans let you pay back based on your income and may even forgive some of your debt. You will never be able to get those benefits back if you combine them into a private loan.
You need to think beyond just the numbers because the calculator won't tell you this. Mortgage debt should almost never be included in a traditional debt consolidation loan because mortgage rates are typically lower than consolidation loan rates, and mortgages are secured by property. If you have medical debt that is on a 0% payment plan with a hospital, you shouldn't combine it with a loan that has interest.
You need to make an educated guess about your rate based on your credit profile if you don't know what it is.
If you have good credit (a FICO score of 740 or higher), you might be able to get a personal loan with an interest rate between 7% and 12%. People with good credit (670-739) usually pay 11% to 18% interest. If you have fair credit (580–669), you might be looking at rates of 18–28% or more.
If you have bad credit (below 580), you may not be able to get a loan at all, and if you do, the rates are usually over 28%. These are just rough guidelines. The actual rates depend on the lender, the amount of the loan, the length of the loan, your income, your debt-to-income ratio, and the state of the market right now.
Getting prequalified with a few lenders using a soft credit check is the safest way to go. This won't hurt your credit score. This is something that most online lenders do. You give them some basic information, they do a soft pull, and they tell you about what rate you might be able to get if you formally applied. When you have real rate quotes, put them into the calculator to get the right answer. If you can't get prequalified and you're just planning ahead, I suggest putting in a rate that's near the top of the range for your credit tier.
It's better to be careful and find out that you qualify for a better rate than to plan around a great rate that you can't actually get. The APR, which includes fees, is also more important than just the interest rate. Your effective APR is higher than 12% if a lender says they will charge you 12% interest but also a 5% origination fee. Check that you're comparing APRs, not just interest rates.
This depends on the calculator. Some automatically add up the usual origination fees and show you the total cost with those fees. Some only show you the principal and interest, not the fees. You should read the instructions or fine print that came with the calculator you are using. Find places where you can put in origination fees, prepayment penalties, or other costs. If those fields are there, the calculator is letting you add fees, so you should use them. If you can't find a place to enter fees, the calculator is probably showing you the best case scenario without fees, and you need to add those costs yourself.
A good rule of thumb is that the fees for getting a personal loan usually range from 1% to 8% of the loan amount. Most of the time, balance transfer cards charge 3% to 5% of the amount that is being transferred. The closing costs for home equity loans can be between 2% and 5% of the loan amount. If the calculator doesn't include these, take them away from your projected savings to get a better idea of what you can save. Some calculators have a separate area for total costs that breaks down fees, which makes it easier to see.
If you're looking at different calculators and one gives you much better results than the others, make sure it's not including fees. That could be why there is a difference. If you're not sure, assume that personal loans and balance transfers will cost you about 3% to 5% of the amount you borrow. Then, make sure your decision still makes sense with those costs in mind.
If the calculator says that consolidation won't save you money, you should pay attention to that. It could be telling you something very important. First, make sure you entered everything correctly, especially the current interest rates and the estimated rate for the consolidation loan. If everything is correct and consolidation still doesn't save money, there are a few possible reasons. You might not be paying as much interest on your current debts as you thought, or the rates on the consolidation loan you qualify for might be higher than you thought.
You might be close to paying off your debts anyway, so the fees for consolidating them are more than the money you save on interest. If your debt is small, the fees for consolidating it might eat up the savings. In these situations, consolidation might still help in ways that aren't financial, like making things easier and simpler by having to make only one payment instead of many. You have to choose if those benefits are worth paying a little more in interest. Or, the calculator could be telling you that you need to raise your credit score before you can consolidate. You might be able to get much better consolidation rates if you can raise your score by 50 to 100 points in the next six months.
You can use the calculator to figure out what rates would make consolidation worth it. Sometimes the answer is that debt consolidation isn't the best way to go. Instead, you should use the debt avalanche method to pay off your highest-interest debts first while making minimum payments on the rest. The calculator is not a command to consolidate; it is a tool to help you make smart choices. If it shows that consolidation won't help your situation, believe that information and look into other ways to pay off your debt.
If you're actively trying to pay off debt, I suggest checking the debt consolidation calculator every three to six months. Your situation changes with time. If you make regular payments, your credit score may go up, which could make you eligible for better consolidation rates. Interest rates change, which means that the rates that are available also change. The math on whether consolidation makes sense changes when your debt balances go down.
If you've paid off a lot of your debt with regular payments, you might find that consolidation isn't worth the fees and trouble anymore. You might also be able to get consolidation options that weren't available before if you've made a big difference in your credit score. Using the calculator from time to time helps you stay on the right track. That said, don't worry too much about small changes.
You don't need to recalculate if your situation is pretty much the same as it was last month. Think about times when something important changed, like when you got a raise, your credit score went up, interest rates went down a lot, you paid off one of your debts in full, or you're thinking about taking on more debt. That's when you should get out the calculator and think again.
You might still want to check the calculator once a year to see if refinancing your consolidation loan makes sense, even if you've already consolidated and are in a consolidation loan. You may be able to refinance your consolidation loan into an even better rate if your credit has gotten a lot better or interest rates have gone down. However, you should keep in mind any new fees that come with the refinance.
Most of the debt consolidation calculators you can find online are made for personal consumer debt, like credit cards, personal loans, medical bills, and other similar debts that people have. For business debt, the math rules are the same. You're still figuring out the total costs, the interest, and the payments. But when it comes to business debt consolidation, there are other things to think about that consumer calculators might not take into account.
Business debt consolidation loans usually need more paperwork than personal loan calculators do. This includes business financial statements, tax returns, profit and loss statements, and other documents. The interest rates, qualification requirements, and loan products available are all different. If you need to combine business debts, look for calculators that are made just for businesses or that let you enter the types of business debts you have.
You can use a consumer calculator to do rough math on business debts, but you need to know what it can't do. The calculator will show you the math, how much interest you would pay over time, how much your monthly payment would be at a certain rate and term, and so on. Just know that the rules for getting business consolidation loans are different from the rules for getting other types of loans.
Some business owners have personal guarantees on their business debts, which makes it hard to tell the difference between personal and business debt. In those situations, you might be using personal consolidation products to combine business debts that you personally guaranteed. In that case, a consumer calculator would be useful.
If you own a small business or are a sole proprietor and don't have a clear line between your personal and business finances, you'll need to look at all of your debts as a whole. Some lenders focus on helping small business owners consolidate their debts, taking into account both their personal and business debts. In short, use the right tool for the job. If you're consolidating business debt, make sure you're working with lenders who know how to help businesses, not just people who want to borrow money.
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