# PLEASE refi your house with us

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-refi-your-house-with-us/974854>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [November 13, 2022, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-refi-your-house-with-us/974854 "2022-11-13T14:54:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-refi-your-house-with-us/974854/21 "2022-11-15T02:14:31Z")

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> [@FairyChatMom](#):
>
> The idea that equity is money just waiting to be spent is marginally insane to me. If we had a catastrophic expense hanging over our heads, maybe… but just to have a chunk of cash to play with? Nope.

Back in the day they called that a “second mortgage”, and it was considered a Bad Thing, something one only did if they desperately needed money to pay for some catastrophic expense.

But then banks realized they could make more money if they sold more of them, so they rebranded it as a “home equity loan” and told people they could use their equity to get money _now_ to buy things with, and a lot of people bought it.

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**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-refi-your-house-with-us/974854/22 "2022-11-15T03:36:44Z")

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[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/N5C8C1WAywU/maxresdefault.jpg "Ghostbusters - Everybody Has 3 Mortgages Nowadays") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5C8C1WAywU)

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**Author:** ![JaneDoe42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janedoe42/32/14104_2.png) [@JaneDoe42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JaneDoe42)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-refi-your-house-with-us/974854/23 "2022-11-15T03:47:23Z")

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I once had a coworker who got a home equity loan to buy a car. Her old car worked just fine, but it was old and she wanted a new car and they also refinanced her home and got her lower payments. She was going to live in her home for the rest of her life so why did it matter that she had just reset the loan to 35 years?

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