<prompt> Human: Husband and I were young, wild, and restless and ended up being in credit card debt. We are working towards paying off that debt but I feel like Im drowning in a sea full of interest. Heres the breakdown: AMEX, 9,926.49 19.24Min payment: 261 CHASE, 8,811.45 15.24Min payment: 202 SLATE, 7,489.74 11.99Min payment: 150 CITI, 3,836.23 0 till Aug 2014Min payment: 57 TOTAL MIN CC PAYMENT A MO: 670I looked into Lending Club to see if I can pay off some of the cards so I can have better credit. These are the 36 mo rates they gave me. The one time fee is taken out of the chunk of money that will be loaned to me. 24,600.00 19.29 Mo payment: 860.14One time fee: 1,230 18,450.00 18.66 Mo payment: 639.49 One time fee: 922 12,300.00 18.15 Mo payment: 423.32 One time fee: 615 6,150.00 18.15 Mo payment: 211.66 One time fee: 308Ive also tried applying for other 0 interest CC to transfer but Ive been denied due to my high credit card utilization. Ive never been late w payments or have any other loans but my credit score has just dropped wayyy down cause of the high CC utilization so Im trying to figure out a way to bring that down. What do you guys think about me taking out a loan to pay some of that CC debt down? Good ideabad idea? Other suggestions?  <response>: I agree with the advice already given in that it seems counter intuitive to consolidate into a higher rate. Have you tried calling your credit card companies to see if they can reduce the interest rates? This website has a couple of tips, but you can google what others have done to get their rates lowered. You may need to be persistent with them but Im sure it can be done.We were in a similar position and the biggest credit card we held was at 16k. After speaking with customer service they were able to put us on a sort of hardship repayment plan. They closed the credit card, and put us on a 60 month 0.5 interest repayment plan. With the rest of our debts we refinanced our car and consolidated them into one loan, but everything we consolidated was at a rate substantially higher than the new loan. I.e 20 into 9 