Debt consolidation is a term you'll hear often in the adverts for loans - especially home loans. The idea is to take out a loan large enough to pay off your credit cards and other loans, then pay off the loan at a lower interest rate than you were paying on the credit cards. It's a logical leap - except for one thing. It works even better if you use the lowest interest rate loan available - 0% balance transfer credit cards.

0% balance transfer cards were the product of a competitive marketplace - the credit card marketplace. After years of growth in the credit card market, the providers found themselves in the position of having to entice customers from each other in order to keep on growing their market share. In order to do that, they came up with several schemes to make their credit cards more attractive than those of their competitors. Balance transfer credit cards are specifically designed to get you to shift your existing balance from one credit card company to another by offering you a better deal. And while 0% balance transfer credit cards are a bit more scarce than they were two years ago, they do still exist - and they've been joined by other low interest balance transfer credit cards schemes.

The Benefits of Credit Card Consolidation with Balance Transfer Credit Cards There are a number of benefits to taking advantage of a balance transfer scheme to get control of your credit card debt.

1. Low (or no) interest slows down the mounting of your debt. If you've been carrying half a dozen balances on higher interest credit cards, chances are your minimum monthly payment doesn't even nibble at your outstanding balance. That's because credit card interest rates are designed to KEEP you in debt, not get you out of it. By moving all of your high interest balances onto one low interest card, you can attack it more directly and keep it from spiraling completely out of control.

2. One monthly payment makes it easier to make the payment on time. Instead of remembering half a dozen different payment due dates, you only have ONE. No more worries about missing or late payments because one of your credit cards fell off the radar