Another option is moving credit card debt into your home equity line of credit or a second mortgage (refinancing an existing loan). The benefit of this arrangement is a lower interest rate, since the debt is secured by your home.

One disadvantage of this arrangement is that you will be paying ten to thirty years on debt racked up buying clothes, eating out or taking trips, increasing the total interest paid on the debt to more than the original amount spent. The other downside is that your debt has changed from unsecured to secure. If you were financially strapped, you could have negotiated a settlement with a credit card company.

A home equity line of credit isn’t negotiable unless you are going through bankruptcy, and they are likely to say no if your home has enough equity to pay off the line of credit and your first mortgage. If you roll over an existing credit line into a new loan secured by your home, you can refinance the second mortgage to extend the term and make the payments more affordable.

If you have improved your credit score, rolling over the unsecured debt into the secured loan and refinance the consolidated balance at a lower interest rate is also an option. If you cannot get a better deal through refinancing the mortgage, a cash back mortgage refinance can give the money to pay off your credit card debt without increasing the interest rate on your home loan or equity line of credit.