Thanks again terry for reply. I tried to quote the part where you asked question but don't know how. It was about WHY we are applying for HELOC. We just bought the house 3 years ago and have a low rate on the mortgage but we need money to pay off credit cards. I have "studied" everything I can find and I believe the payments on a heloc would be much lower than our minimum credit card payments. So we could pay off credit cards and make lower monthly payments on heloc (including paying more than minimum) and have more cash in hand each month to use instead of credit cards. We have almost completely stopped using the credit cards already but it's a very tight squeeze, especially towards the end of the month.
I realize that the credit cards are unsecured debt, and the heloc puts the house in jeopardy, but I'm sure that we can pay the heloc back unless the rates really jump up or something drastic happens. But that's one of those "you never know" things in life. Also, since we've only had the house 3 years we are still really only paying interest on the mortgage. The one thing that worries me is that the Loan companies only tell us what the interest rate will be for the first month, or the first 3 months. No one seems to want to give equity loans (with fixed rate). They will only talk line of credit. One company has given us a good offer (at least to
begin with) but we are disputing their requirement of flood insurance. We are waiting for a written offer to arrive from another. If they say Flood Insurance we may just give up. We live in a rural area and one end of our "lane" is low and crosses a little brook. But we are on the other end of the lane which rises up a hill from the brook. But the FEMA flood maps don't have house numbers etc. and no one asked us which part of the lane we are on.
Sorry, I digress. Hate all this "red tape". Makes me admit there are some advantages to renting.