Yes, I’ve done this. It probably will save you money, but here’s the trick: You can’t go back to using the credit card and only paying minimum payments. Consolidate into a personal loan, and see if they’ll give you enough to pay off the balance PLUS $1000. If they will, the other $1000 becomes your emergency fund. LEAVE IT ALONE and use it only for things like your water heater goes boom or you lose your job. Consider tucking aside an extra say $50 off each paycheck to augment that fund. That will keep you from having to tap the credit card for rainy-day expenses.
Important to note: Minimum payments on a credit card aren’t enough to keep your balance from rising. You need to pay the interest for the month and a portion of the principal each month to get the balance to actually go down.
