There are hundreds of thousands of people stuck in credit card debt. They swim and swim through it but they just can't find their life raft. Many people begin transferring balances from one account to the next. They go through circles moving their debt around and never really getting anything paid off. They will transfer a balance with a high interest rate to a lower interest rate, but they are actually doing more harm than good. A better route is to take out a credit consolidation loan and drop the credit card juggle completely.

The idea is a good one and it seems logical, but your credit is really taking the fall. The reason is because many people open additional lines of credit to move their balances around to. This increases your opportunity to get yourself into even more debt, which is the last thing you want to do when you are trying to rebuild your credit. All that creditors see are balances being moved around but never being paid off. They see someone who has the potential to run up more charges but never pay their existing ones.

Instead of juggling balances you need to make a plan and stick to it consistently. If you have any cards without balances, request that those cards be closed. Next, consider a credit consolidation loan through your local lender. You are more likely to get a lower interest rate at a bank that you have a good reputation with. Now, begin paying off all of those credit cards with the money from the loan. Your only payment now will be a payment to pay off the credit consolidation loan.

Your second option is to begin paying down your credit cards one at a time. This shows lenders that you are actually working towards getting out of debt, not just juggling your debt. Start with the card with the highest interest rate and pay it off. Then pay off the next highest and so forth.

For those individuals with more extensive debt, you may have to use both strategies. You may have to take out a credit consolidation loan that will pay the majority of your debt and then begin paying off your other debts one at a time. The benefit here is that you will have a consistent payment history with your credit consolidation loan and then you will be able to show lenders that you are working on paying off your debt as well.