I agree with your ideas that a consolidation loan will not do you any good if you don’t fix the underlying problems, however I don’t agree that a consolidation loan, peer to peer or borrowing from family should be considered before balance transfers to another card.

If you have good enough credit for any of those other options, you should also be eligible for balance transfer rates. Even in todays “credit crunch” I get offers for 0% for 7 months, 2.9% for 12 months. How can these tools be overlooked as options. The way credit cards apply your payments to the highest rates first there is a strong discouragement to using the card.

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