A reader named Priya emailed me last month with a screenshot of a pre-qualified offer: a $14,000 loan at “as low as 11.9%” to roll up three credit cards. Her question was simple — “Is this actually good, or does it just look good?” I asked her to send me her three statements, and it took about four minutes to find the real answer, because the math for this question is always the same shape: what’s your blended rate right now, and does the offer beat it once you account for the whole term, not just the payment.
That’s exactly what this calculator does, using your real numbers instead of an advertised “as low as” rate. Enter every debt you’re carrying, then enter the loan offer you’re actually looking at — its rate, its term, any origination fee — and it shows you both paths side by side: what the loan really costs you in total interest, against what paying it off yourself at that same monthly amount would cost. Same question I answered for Priya, run on your own numbers.
Debt Consolidation Calculator
Your current debts
| Debt | Balance | APR % | Minimum |
|---|
The loan offer you’re comparing
The origination fee is modeled as a cost on top of the loan — either deducted from what you receive or added to what you owe, depending on the lender. Nothing you type is sent anywhere or stored.
Key Takeaways
- This calculator compares two paths at the same monthly budget: taking the consolidation loan, or paying your current debts off yourself, highest rate first, using that same monthly amount.
- It computes your blended APR — the single rate your current debts effectively charge, weighted by balance — which is the number any loan offer actually has to beat.
- The loan’s true cost includes both its interest and its origination fee. A lower headline rate with a large fee can still lose to a higher rate with no fee.
- A loan that only lowers your payment, by stretching the term, often costs more in total — this calculator compares total cost, not the payment, on purpose.
- Your inputs — balance, APR, minimum — are printed on your statements. Nothing you type is sent anywhere or stored.
What You Need Before You Start
Pull up every account you’re thinking about rolling into the loan — credit cards, store cards, any personal loan or medical bill in the mix — and get three numbers from each: the current balance, the APR, and the minimum payment. All three are on your statement, usually in a small table near the end that’s easy to skip past.
Then get the actual loan offer, not the advertised range. Lenders often pre-qualify you with a soft credit check that shows your real rate before you apply — use that number, not the “as low as” headline rate on their homepage, which is reserved for applicants with the strongest credit. You’ll need the APR, the term in months, and any origination fee, usually shown as a percentage taken off what you receive.
How to Read Your Results
Blended APR
This is what your current debts are actually costing you, all together, weighted by how much you owe on each one. It’s the number the loan has to beat — not the rate on your worst card, not the rate on your best one, but the true average. Any consolidation offer above this number isn’t saving you anything, no matter how it’s marketed.
Total Cost If You Consolidate
The loan’s interest over its full term, plus the origination fee in dollars. This is the number most comparisons leave out the fee from, which can quietly flatter a loan that isn’t actually the better deal once you count everything you’re paying to get it.
Total Interest If You Pay It Off Yourself
This runs the same monthly amount — the loan’s payment, or your current minimums, whichever is higher — against your existing debts in avalanche order: highest rate first. It answers the honest question underneath every consolidation offer: could you get a similar or better result without a new loan, fee, or hard inquiry, just by being disciplined with the money you’re already planning to spend?
“A consolidation loan isn’t automatically cheaper than paying it off yourself. It’s cheaper when its rate, after the fee, beats what discipline alone would cost you — and not a moment before.”
Reading the Comparison Honestly
Two outcomes are worth sitting with for a second, because both are real and both show up depending on your numbers.
If the loan wins: that’s usually because your blended APR is genuinely high — several cards in the low-to-mid 20s — and your credit qualifies you for a rate meaningfully below that. In that case the loan is doing exactly what it’s supposed to: lowering the true cost of the same debt. My deeper walkthrough of when debt consolidation is a good idea covers the qualitative side of this decision — the empty-card trap, what credit score you need, and the three products that all wear the “consolidation” label.
If paying it off yourself wins: that usually means the loan’s rate isn’t far enough below your blended APR to clear its own fee, or the term is long enough that extra months of interest eat the savings. That’s not a failure of the calculator or the offer — it’s useful information. The debt avalanche method and debt snowball method both walk through what that self-directed payoff looks like in practice, and my debt avalanche calculator and debt snowball calculator let you compare those two orderings against each other directly, without a loan in the picture at all.
Either way, it’s worth reading about what debt consolidation does to your credit score before you apply for anything — the short version is a small, temporary dip followed by a net gain for most people, but the details depend on which of the three consolidation products you’re actually looking at.
Frequently Asked Questions
What counts as a good rate for a debt consolidation loan?
Whatever is meaningfully below your blended APR — the calculator above shows you that number using your real balances and rates. There’s no universal “good rate,” because a 14% loan is a great deal against a 24% blended rate on maxed-out cards, and a mediocre one against a 16% blended rate on a single card you’re already paying down fast.
Does the origination fee really matter that much?
It can. A 5% fee on a $15,000 loan is $750 — enough to erase a year or more of the interest savings a lower rate would otherwise deliver. Always ask for the fee in dollars, not just the percentage, and make sure whatever comparison you’re running (including this one) accounts for it.
Why does the calculator use my current minimums if the loan payment is lower?
Because a lower payment isn’t automatically a win — it’s often just a longer term in disguise, and this calculator is built to compare total cost, not monthly comfort. If a lower payment is genuinely what you need right now, that’s a legitimate reason to consolidate, but it’s worth knowing that reason honestly rather than assuming it also saves you money overall.
Should I include a medical bill or personal loan in this calculator?
Yes, if you’re considering rolling it into the same consolidation loan. Enter its balance, whatever interest rate applies (many medical bills on a payment plan carry 0%, which is worth keeping separate rather than consolidating away), and its minimum payment like any other row.
What if I don’t have a real loan offer yet?
Use a reasonable estimate based on your credit range to get a feel for the math, then come back and re-run it once you’ve pre-qualified somewhere with a soft credit check. The blended APR tile is accurate the moment you enter your debts — it’s the loan-side numbers that need a real offer to mean anything.
Priya’s blended rate came out to just under 23%. Her offer was 11.9% with a 4% fee over 60 months — and even with the fee counted, it beat paying the cards off herself by a little over $1,900. She took the loan, kept the cards open and out of her wallet, and set autopay the day it funded. Your numbers might land the same way, or they might not — that’s exactly why you run them instead of trusting the “as low as.” So here’s the assignment: pull your statements, enter your real balances and rates above, drop in the actual offer, and look at the two totals side by side. Whichever one is smaller is your answer.
The Paystream shares information and frameworks to help you make your own decisions; it isn’t personalized financial, legal, or tax advice. For guidance specific to your situation — especially if your debt feels unmanageable — consider speaking with a nonprofit credit counselor or a qualified professional.
