Personal loans aren’t bad when used for smart financial reasons. Personal loans can be a great way to consolidate credit card debt or pay for a large purchase. However, like most other forms of debt, there are right ways and wrong ways to use personal loans. For example, it’s usually a bad idea to take out a personal loan to buy stocks. It’s important to make sure that you can afford the monthly payments on a personal loan, especially if you’re using them to consolidate credit card debt, as the payments on a personal loan are generally higher than the minimum payments on credit cards.