Yeah, notice that they had expected to have their mortgage paid off by 2013. Why not just refinance and pay off the cards?
“...why not just refinance and pay off the cards?”
Because you don’t move unsecured debt (cards) to secured debt (house) especially if it’s you primary residence!
I’d rather take my chances working through the credit card debt than losing my house to foreclosure.
They apparently couldn’t qualify for a loan. Besides, they needed to learn a lesson.
If they’d refinanced and paid off 17 credit cards, they would’ve then had a much larger mortgage PLUS 17 credit cards with newly available zero balances. And, the fun times would’ve started all over again.
Don’t make credit card payments...lose the card and your credit score.
Don’t make house payments...lose your house.