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Q I have consolidated all of our credit-card debt onto two credit cards with APRs of 4.99 percent and 2.99 percent. My husband wants us to take out a loan so we will make set monthly payments though the interest would be considerably higher, around 11.25 percent.

A You clearly like an unstructured approach that allows for side trips. Your husband likes a direct approach with few unknowns and a clear end to the journey. In the end, the only right answer is the one you agree on. Either approach will work.

Still, there are some tangible factors I can suggest that may help. You are of the school that says the less money you pay in interest charges, the better the loan. Depending on how long it takes you to pay off the balance, you could be right. But depending on what little surprises life has in store for you, maybe not.

A downside of using credit cards to consolidate debt is the not-so-nice universal default clause that is included in many cardholder agreements. If you are late making a payment on the credit-card account in question, if your credit score or history changes substantially, or if you are late with a payment to another creditor, your rate can be raised to the default rate — usually in the ballpark of 30 percent.

Optimist that you are, I have a feeling that this eventuality will have little impact on your sunny outlook for using the cards. So consider this: With most cards, once you carry a balance over a month, new purchases are charged interest immediately. Not at the nice rates for a balance transfer, but at the market rate of about 18 percent.

Any payments you make go to the lower interest-rate balance first. So before you can shut off the new high-interest finance charges you must pay down the low-interest balances completely, which could be years.

If your new card balances as a result of the transfers are more than 50 percent of the limit, then your credit score will take a hit and you will be one step closer to a universal default.

Now let's look at the bank loan that your husband favors. As you can see, you might or might not pay more interest this way. But life will be more predictable. This may be behind his concern.

The other concern I see relates to why you are carrying credit-card debt large enough to need to consolidate it. Perhaps the easygoing approach to finances is concerning him and a more disciplined repayment plan will assure that this debt gets paid off before it eats you out of house and home.

My suggestion is to combine the benefits of both approaches. Leave the debt on the cards if you want the interest savings, but arrange for an automatic payment equal to the amount of the installment-loan payment to be sent directly from your bank account each month.

This will pay down the debt in less time than the installment loan would have taken, which will limit your exposure to unpleasant surprises and still assure you that you will have a ending point. Do not use those cards until they are paid off.