Debt Consolidation Calculator
Rolling debts into one loan only helps if the total cost falls — term-stretching can make a lower rate cost more. This compares staying against consolidating, fees included.
Consolidation is a trade, not a rescue
You are offered a lower rate, a single payment, and — folded quietly into the deal — a longer runway. Whether the trade profits you is one subtraction: the interest you would pay staying, minus the interest and fees of the new loan. This page performs it and lets a negative answer print in full size.
Saving = interest (stay, at your current payments) − (interest on the new loan + its fees)
Example: $18,000 at 24% being paid at $600 a month costs about $7,300 of interest over ~43 months. Consolidated at 11% over 4 years with no fee: interest about $4,300 — a saving near $3,000, despite the longer term. Stretch the new loan to 7 years instead and the saving shrinks to a few hundred: term is the silent term of every consolidation.
The behavioral footnote that decides real outcomes
Consolidation moves card balances to zero — and zero-balance cards refill in a depressing share of households, doubling the problem. The arithmetic above assumes the old lines stay empty. If they would not, the correct model of consolidation is two debts, and no calculator's saving survives it.
How this is calculated
Staying path: payoff simulation at your current total monthly payment against the blended APR. New path: the balance plus fees amortized over the new term at the new rate, costed as total interest + fees. Both at monthly interest; multiple real debts with distinct minimums are better modeled in the debt-payoff calculator, and the page says so by design.
Frequently asked questions
Will consolidation hurt my credit?
A new inquiry and account dip it briefly; closing the utilization on revolving cards usually helps more over the following months. Closing the old cards entirely can hurt (shorter history, less available credit) — most people keep them open and unused.
Balance transfer or consolidation loan?
Transfers offer lower promo rates with fees and a cliff-edge deadline; consolidation loans offer certainty and a fixed schedule at a higher rate. The transfer calculator prices the other candidate on the same model family.
What rate makes consolidation worthwhile?
There is no universal threshold — it depends on your current payment discipline and the new term. The test on this page (positive saving without extending your horizon excessively) is the practical one.
Can I consolidate federal student loans here?
The arithmetic runs, but federal consolidation and private refinancing of student debt carry program consequences (see the student loan page's warning) that dwarf interest differences. Model it here; decide it elsewhere, advised.
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