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Credit card consolidation loans are personal loans used to pay down multiple credit card balances and simplify your debt into one fixed monthly payment. They also can reduce the overall cost of your debt by offering lower interest rates than those you pay on your credit cards.
Best Credit Card Consolidation Loans
- LightStream Personal Loan: Best for good credit
- SoFi Personal Loan: Best for large loan amounts
- Payoff Loan™: Best for good credit
- LendingClub Personal Loan: Best for co-borrowers
- Upstart Personal Loan: Best for limited credit history
- Reach Financial Personal Loan: Best for fast funding
Next Step: See if you're prequalified for a loan without impacting your credit score.
The best personal loans for credit card consolidation have a variety of term lengths, low interest rates, and fast funding.
Compare the Best Credit Card Consolidation Loans
For more options, view our guide to the best debt consolidation loans »
Credit Card Consolidation Loans Frequently Asked Questions
To consolidate credit card debt, you get a loan from one lender for the total amount of debt you'd like to combine that leaves you with one monthly payment and a smaller interest rate. Consider the differences between a personal loan vs. a credit card before making a decision. For instance, personal loans like a credit card consolidation loan have lower interest rates.
There are several factors that go into qualifying for a loan for credit card consolidation. These include your credit score, income, and credit history. Generally, you'll need credit score in the low to mid-600s to get a loan, although some lenders will accept borrowers with lower scores.
While credit card consolidation loans can help get your your debt under control, it's not always the best choice. For instance, it may be difficult to get approved for a low rate if you don't have good credit. Lenders may also tack on fees, and the time you have to pay off the debt could be shorter than you had with the credit cards, which could mean higher monthly payments.
You can use personal loans and other kinds of loans, including home equity loans, to consolidate credit card debt. If you take out a loan with a lower interest rate than what you're paying on your credit card debt, you can save a substantial amount of money in paying it off.
Consolidating your debt with a debt consolidation loan may reduce your credit score initially. However, in time, a debt consolidation can have a positive effect because it can reduce the amount you owe and your monthly minimum payments, both of which affect your credit score.
Best Credit Card Consolidation Loan Company Reviews
LightStream Personal Loan
LightStream is a great choice for borrowers with good credit scores, as its minimum requirement is 660. It has a very wide range of amounts you can borrow, from $5,000 to $100,000, making it a solid option for borrowers with a variety of credit card debt.
The lender also doesn't charge any fees, which will reduce the overall cost of your loan for credit card debt.
Watch out for: No preapproval. Many borrowers prefer shopping around to compare rates. Often, this involves getting preapproved by several companies and evaluating the offers before settling on one. LightStream doesn't offer preapprovals for its personal loans.
Lightstream Personal Loan Review
SoFi Personal Loan
SoFi has very high loan amount limits. A maximum of $100,000 could be helpful for borrowers who need a large credit card debt loan. Some competing lenders won't lend nearly as much.
It also features unemployment protection. SoFi offers forbearance in case you lose your job during your loan repayment. This unique feature gives you as many as 12 months of forbearance, which you apply for in three-month increments.
Watch out for: High minimum credit score requirement. The minimum credit score required for approval is 680. Many other personal loan lenders have lower requirements for credit card consolidation loans.
Happy Money Personal Loan
Happy Money's Payoff loans are designed specifically to help borrowers consolidate credit card debt. Its loans for credit card consolidation have competitive minimum APRs and are accessible to borrowers with credit scores of 640 or higher.
However, Payoff doesn't serve borrowers in Maine, Massachusetts, Nebraska, or Nevada, so you can't get a personal loan in these states.
Watch out for: Slow access to funds. It will take between two and five business days to get your money, which is slower than many other personal loan companies.
Happy Money Personal Loan Review
LendingClub Personal Loan
A big perk of LendingClub is that you're able to add a coborrower to your application. This means if your credit score isn't good enough to qualify for a credit card debt loan, you may be able to enlist a cosigner to help.
Additionally, the lender has a minimum loan amount of just $1,000. This is good if you only need to consolidate a small amount of debt.
Watch out for: A few different types of fees. You'll have to pay an origination fee between 3% to 8% of your total loan amount, and that fee will be baked into your loan APR. If your payment is more than 15 days late, you may be charged a late fee and other penalties.
LendingClub Personal Loan Review
Upstart Personal Loan
Upstart's loan approval doesn't solely depend on credit scores. For people who don't have the best credit history, Upstart will factor in a few other pieces of information for a better shot at getting approved for a credit card consolidation loan.
You also may be able to get your money on the same day you apply for your loan.
Watch out for: High origination fees. Upstart's personal loans can have origination fees up to 8%. Compared to competing lenders, this is a higher maximum — LendingClub tops its fees at 3% to 8%, respectively.
Reach Financial Personal Loan
Reach Financial is another lender designed specifically for debt consolidation. The lender has relatively fast funding speed. It will pay off your creditors directly — you won't see any money hit your account — and will do so within roughly 48 hours after your loan is approved.
Watch out for: Origination fees. Reach Financial charges an origination fee that ranges from 0% to 5%. Origination fees are a percentage taken out of your total loan proceeds and increase the over cost of your loan. Many other lenders don't charge origination fees.
Other Credit Card Consolidation Loan Companies We Considered
- Navy Federal Credit Union Personal Loan. You can take out a loan of as little as $250 from the military-focused credit union to consolidate credit card debt. But you'll need to be a member to qualify. Membership requirements are relatively strict. You're only eligible if you are active military member, veteran, employee or retiree of the Department of Defense, or family member of someone in one of those groups.
- Rocket Loans Personal Loan. Rocket Loans has same-day funding for a few kinds of loans. But borrowers can only choose from two repayment term lengths and you're not able to take out a joint or co-signed loan.
- Best Egg Personal Loan. Best Egg gives borrowers with good credit low rates. But if your credit score is lower than 640 you won't be eligible for a loan. Read Insider's full review of Best Egg.
- OppLoans Personal Loan. OppLoans doesn't have a minimum credit score to be eligible, but its APR range is significantly higher than any lender on our list, spanning from 59.00% to 160.00%.
Credit Card Consolidation Loan Trustworthiness
Whether you're interested in a $5,000 loan or a $50,000 loan, finding the right lender can help with your loan approval experience. We've looked at each institution's Better Business Bureau score to offer you another piece of information to pick a company that provides personal loans for credit card consolidation. The BBB measures businesses based on factors like their responsiveness to customer complaints, truthfulness in advertising, and openness about business practices. Here is each company's score:
| Lender | BBB Grade |
| Payoff Personal Loan | A+ |
| LightStream Personal Loan | A+ |
| Reach Financial Personal Loan | A+ |
| SoFi Personal Loan | A+ |
| LendingClub Personal Loan | A |
| Upstart Personal Loan | A+ |
Our top picks are rated A or higher by the BBB. Know that a high BBB score does not ensure a positive relationship with a credit card consolidation loan provider, and you should keep researching and talk to others who have used the company to get the most complete information possible.
Why You Should Trust Us: Our Methodology for Credit Card Consolidation Loans
We rate all personal loan products in our reviews and guides on a 1-5 scale. The overall rating is a weighted average that takes into account seven different categories, some of which are judged more heavily than others. They are:
- Interest rate (20% of rating)
- Fees (20% of rating)
- Term lengths and loan amounts (15% of rating)
- Funding speed (15% of rating)
- Borrower accessibility (15% of rating)
- Customer support (7.5% of rating)
- Ethics (7.5% of rating)
Each category's weighting is based on its importance to your borrowing experience. Rates and fees have the most direct impact on the overall cost of your loan, so we weigh those the most heavily. Customer support and ethics are still very important parts of the borrowing experience, but do not directly tie to a personal loan's terms, so they have less of an impact on the overall rating.
See our broader ratings methodology for personal loans »
Editorial Note: Any opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any card issuer. Read our editorial standards.
Please note: While the offers mentioned above are accurate at the time of publication, they're subject to change at any time and may have changed, or may no longer be available.
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