To debt consolidate, one takes all of their loans, however many they may be, and puts them into one loan. Of this one loan, usually there is a fixed interest rate, and the interest rate is usually lower. Many times the debt consolidator will try to get your loan so that it will be lower, and sometimes they can lower it as much as 20%! At the same time, in order to get your loan lowered it is best to keep making payments on time. Otherwise your discount that may be lower will not be, because you are not keeping up with the payments. Credit cards carry the largest interest rate, so this is what people try to pay off ahead of time.