How to Pay Off Debt

What is Debt Pinball?

Debt Pinball is all about giving you options about paying down your high credit card balances and getting your credit scores up.

For consolidation loans, we recommend using a peer to peer lending service. Peer to peer, or P2P, means that you are connected directly with individual lenders, instead of borrowing from a bank.

Color My Credit Recommended Lenders

Upstart

Lending Club

Prosper

Payoff

OneMain

Peerform

How much should you ask for?

You'll be using this loan to pay down your high credit card balances. Use your credit card apps or websites to get current balances for all of your cards and add them together to know how much of a loan you'll need.

Why does this work?

By immediately paying down all of your high credit card balances to zero, you're giving yourself an opportunity to demonstrate good financial discipline by using your two oldest cards for our Easy As 1-2-3 method, as well as having an installment loan account reporting good payment history.

Didn't get approved?

One of the most common reasons that you can't get approved for a P2P loan is due to the cards you have being over 70% of the limit. Color My Credit recommends finding an alternative method for getting your cards down to 70% of the limit, and then reapplying.

What about high interest?

Getting an interest bearing loan to pay down other debt may seem like a crazy idea, but it can actually be your best option -- and here's why.

Interest is calculated differently.

Credit cards will typically end up having higher interest due to how the interest is calculated compared to a personal loan.

In addition to this, as you are reporting positive credit history, you can refinance your loan for a lower rate.

You're flipping your credit profile instantly.

You're immediately allowing your credit cards to demonstrate proper financial discipline by paying your balances down and then following our Easy As 1-2-3 method. In addition, you're also demonstrating good payment history on your new installment loan.

When will I see an impact on my score?

Within 30-60 days, as your accounts report updated balances and your installment loan reports on-time payments, you could see an increase of potentially hundreds of points difference, depending on your credit history.