Should I use a personal loan to pay off credit cards, or just pay the cards directly?

When a personal loan wins: Your average credit card APR is 22%+ and you qualify for a personal loan at 12%-15%. You have $5,000-$30,000 in card debt that will take 24-60 months to pay off. A fixed monthly payment helps you stay on track better than variable minimum-payment statements.

Math example: $12,000 in credit card debt at 24% average APR, paying $350/month. Payoff time: approximately 48 months. Total interest: approximately $4,600. Alternative: $12,000 personal loan at 14% APR, 48 months, $332/month. Total interest: approximately $3,936. Savings: $664 in interest.

The re-running-cards risk: The main failure mode is using the personal loan to pay off cards, then accumulating new card balances. Now you have both the personal loan payment AND new card debt. If you use this strategy, consider closing or locking away the paid-off cards.

When paying cards directly makes more sense: Total balance is under $3,000 and you can pay aggressively in 6-12 months. You qualify for a 0% balance transfer card - free financing beats any personal loan rate. Your personal loan rate would be 20%+ (near card rates), making the swap not worthwhile.

Hybrid approach: Pay off the highest-rate cards with a personal loan and continue aggressive direct payments on lower-rate cards. This maximizes interest savings without transferring all debt to a fixed-term structure.