The two most common debt consolidation approaches are 1) through a Debt Consolidation Loan, and 2) with a Balance Transfer Card. Both of these require authorities to make hard inquiries on your credit, which impacts your credit score in the short term. The considerable dip in monthly payments also hurt it. But this short-term damage to the credit score can be repaired by staying up-to-date on the payments of your new loan. In the long term, as long as you reduce your overall debt and remain current on repayment, your credit score will improve.