Minimum payments are a trap. If you are making only minimum payments on $25,000 of credit card debt, at an 18.9% interest rate, it would take around 35 years to pay it off. Even worse, you’d tack on $38,974 in interest to the original balance!
Debt consolidation loans are not always the best answer. In reality, 78% of consumers’ credit card debt grows back to the original amount after taking out a debt consolidation loan. If the consumer cannot learn to apply beneficial spending and saving habits, a loan usually only complicates bad financial habits.