The Rate Gap, in Real Numbers
As of late August 2026, the average credit card interest rate sits at 24.93% across the market, and even among cardholders who actually carry a balance month to month, the Federal Reserve puts the average assessed rate at 22.15%. Compare that to a 7.16% national average HELOC rate the same week. That's not a small difference — it's the difference between interest working against you and interest you can actually make progress against.
is the rough gap between today's average credit card APR (24.93%) and the national average HELOC rate (7.16%) — on $20,000 of balances, that gap alone is the difference between roughly $4,986 and $1,432 in annual interest, before any principal is paid down.
Sources: Forbes Advisor average credit card interest rate report, August 31, 2026; Federal Reserve G.19 data on accounts assessed interest, May 2026; Bankrate national average HELOC rate via Yahoo Finance, August 31, 2026. Illustrative only, not a quote for any specific account.
What Actually Changes When You Consolidate
Instead of making separate minimum payments to three or four card issuers at three or four different rates, you draw against your HELOC to pay each card balance off directly, then make one payment on the line going forward. The math can be straightforward: a $20,000 balance spread across cards at an average 25% APR generates roughly $5,000 a year in interest alone if left untouched. That same $20,000 moved to a 7.16% line generates closer to $1,432 a year — freeing up real monthly cash flow that can go toward the principal instead of just servicing interest.
The Part Worth Being Honest About
Credit card debt is unsecured — if it goes unpaid, the consequence is damage to your credit, not the loss of an asset. A HELOC is secured by your home. Consolidating credit card debt into a HELOC lowers your rate, but it also means that debt is now backed by your house rather than by nothing but your credit profile. That trade-off is worth taking seriously, not glossing over.
The other real risk isn't the HELOC itself — it's what happens to the credit cards after they're paid off. If those same cards get run back up while a HELOC balance is also outstanding, the result is more total debt, not less. A HELOC works as a debt-reduction tool only if the underlying spending pattern that built the balances changes too.
How the Draw Actually Works
Once approved, you draw against your line and send funds directly to pay off each card balance, then close or set aside those cards going forward. On Aven's platform, each draw locks in its own fixed rate at the time you take it, so a $20,000 consolidation draw keeps a predictable, fixed payment rather than floating with the broader rate market the way a card's variable APR does.