Bank offers 5.9% loan: Consolidate CC bills?

Wells Fargo is offering a pretty sweet deal: 5.9% fixed rate loan and I sure would like to consolidate. HOWEVER, I don%26#039;t owe much, just over $3500 on two cards. The interest rates on both cards are 22.9% -- so it%26#039;s very irritating they won%26#039;t even negotiate when I have my new car at 6.9%, and perfect payment history.

My concern tho, will shifting my debt from the CC cards to a bank loan hurt my credit in the long run? I%26#039;ve heard that I should pay them out over time, not in one big whammy. Also, should I close my CC accounts after they%26#039;re paid off, or would leaving them open be better for me?

Bank offers 5.9% loan: Consolidate CC bills?quick loan

One of the things credit companies look at is your debt ratio to available credit. Since you are maxed out, for you right now that is 0%, not good. If you got the loan and shifted your payments to the lower interest rate, that ratio would go up to 50%, since you would have $7k of debt, but 50% of that would be available credit, which would make your credit score higher. As long as you don%26#039;t spend anything on the now-empty cards, your credit rating would go up. If you spent on the cards, your rating would drop again to lower than it was before. If you closed the accounts, however, your ratio would go back down to 0% since you%26#039;d have no available credit.

So to maximize benefit to yourself and keep your credit score as high as possible, the best thing would be to get the loan but to be careful to NOT spend any more on the cards once you did the transfer. That may not be as easy as it sounds; you do need some spending discipline to keep your cards empty. If you know yourself well enough to know you would spend on the empty cards, the best thing would indeed be to close the accounts. Only you can decide which is desire is stronger, to spend or to eliminate your debt.