If the equity in your home is larger than the unpaid first-mortgage debt and you plan to stay in your home for 3 years or less, consider replacing your mortgage with a HELOC mortgage. HELOC loans typically are available at rates considerably lower than first-mortgages.

Even if rates increase a full percentage point each year, they’ll still be low when you pay off the loan. Best of all, there are no closing costs with a good HELOC loan, so you won’t have to worry about recouping them through interest savings as you do with a traditional mortgage refinance.

Using tip 3 as well, savvy persons might even be able to move a significant portion of their mortgage balance to a 0% credit card due to the inherent flexibility of HELOC loans.

The same line of thinking can benefit homeowners with smaller mortgage balances. Often senior citizens have small-balance mortgages that loan officers are not eager to process through traditional refinancings. Instead, the elderly homeowners continue pay a high rate of interest thinking that nothing can be done. This is another scenario where refinancing a regular mortgage with a HELOC loan can make a lot of sense.