If your decide to consolidate credit card debt in the state of texas you must wait 12 days from the time of application to close on your cash out loan, also texas cash-out loans are limited to an 80% ltv (loan to value). This law only applies to homestead properties and it may be different if the property is a second home or investment property.

Remember, you have a three (business) day right of recession before you can receive the cash from your refinance.

During most refinances you will be able to skip a month, or two, of your mortgage payment. It would be a good idea to take some, or all, of that payment and apply it to your credit card debt.

Another option if you do not have enough equity in your home to pay off your credit cards is to refinance to a pay option arm. The money you can save by making minimum payments on your mortgage can be applied to your credit cards to help pay them down quicker.

When deciding to refinance for debt consolidation you might want to consider how long you will have to pay your credit cards if you are only making the monthly minimums. This can take you much longer in most cases than paying on a traditional 30 year fixed mortgage.

If you are planning on selling your home in the near future, you may want to rethink consolidating. You need to make sure that you have enough equity to pay for realtor’s commission and down payment or closing costs on the new home.

Remember not to stop making regular payments towards credit card debts simply because you are in the process of consolidating them. Defaults and late payments can negatively impact your credit and jeopardize the consolidation loan.

In order to decide if a debt consolidation is your best action, you should figure what you are paying now and how that will translate in the length of time it will take you to pay off those credit cards. You may find that rolling those debts into your mortgage will save you thousands of dollars in interest payments.

If you have gotten buried in a hole with credit card debt it could be a necessity to refinance your home and pay off your credit card debt. It has been known to save thousands of dollars. On the other side of the spectrum, if you only have 5 months left on a credit card bill it is note wise decision to bury that into a mortgage.

You can consolidate your credit card debt through use of your first mortgage or by obtaining a second mortgage or a home equity line of credit, also known as a heloc. A heloc works with the same basic principals of a credit card. It is a revolving account that as you pay the equity line down, you have that money available to you to use again. With a second mortgage you simply have a set term (5 years, 10 years, 15 years, etc) that you will pay on the loan for and when it is paid off you are relinquished of your obligation to this debt and the account closes. All three (1st mortgage, 2nd mortgage or heloc) are excellent choices for debt consolidation but you and your mortgager broker will need to figure out which one makes the most sense for your particular situation.