The recent economic circumstances have made most people aware of their finances, especially their debt. One of the biggest areas of concern are peoples their credit cards. People are looking to credit card debt consolidation to help reduce their overall monthly payments by transferring all credit card debt onto a single card.

Of course if transferring a balance or balances between credit cards is going to save you substantial amounts of money, you should definitely take advantage of that. However, it isn't simply a case of looking at the interest rates and transferring to the lowest one. You also need to take into account the hidden fees.

One of the things to watch out for is a balance transfer fee. This is a fee that credit card issuers will charge to "allow" the debt to be transferred from one company to another - this can often time be as much as $45 - even more in some cases. That is bad enough - the real trouble comes with what some companies have done recently which is to charge a percentage of the outstanding debt as the transfer fee. Depending on the debt you are transferring and the credit card company's fee - this could add up to quite a bit.

Some other fees that credit card companies might charge that you need to be aware of are fees like online account fees where they charge you to pay bills online, or use their online service. Similarly, you could be charged for paying monthly bills over the phone - usually this is charged by the billing company, but some credit card companies charge these fees as well if it is a recurring payment. Make sure to check on this if you are a frequent user of these types of services.

Most people skip the fine print as it is about as fun to read as having a root canal done. However, if you are thinking of credit card debt consolidation through balance transfer, just make sure you take the time to carefully read that dreaded fine print. Doing so could end up saving you a lot of money.