Debt in Canada has reached a record high. Canadians now owe $1.7 for ever $1 of disposable income, as shared by Statistics Canada. These numbers are alarming and it is a consolation that our housing market is strong. You might love to know that there’s a huge possibility that you’ve built up more equity than what you initially thought.

Equity built up in your home can be used to help you get out of debt if you use it the smart way. It isn’t easy to get out of debt when you’re simply trying to stay afloat keeping up with paying high interest consumer debts like credit cards and auto loans. Why not borrow your home equity to consolidate your debts then?

Why Borrow Your Home Equity?

It sounds counterproductive to borrow money to pay off debt, but know that using your home equity to consolidate debt means swapping huge interest-rate debts for one with very low interest rate. It helps too that once you do this, you’ll only have one easy monthly payment to think of instead of trying to track several.

Consolidating debts using home equity isn’t a new concept, but not many are aware of the different ways this can be achieved. We’ll talk about those ways below.

Apply for a Second Mortgage

A home equity loan, also called a second mortgage, is one of the easiest ways for you to use your home’s equity for debt consolidation. It will also allow you to use up to 85% of your property’s appraised value minus any outstanding mortgage balance from your first mortgage.

Getting a second mortgage will enable you to get a fixed amount of money that you can pay for a fixed amount of time as stated in your loan. It doesn’t replace your first mortgage so you’ll be responsible for making 2 payments per month once approved but the benefits are immense!

The interest rate of a second mortgage is really low so most of the payment you’ll be making will go towards the repayment of the loan. Compare that with credit card interest of about 30% and you can see that by not consolidating you are actually paying nothing but the interest in your credit card.

Get a Home Equity Line of Credit

Applying for a HELOC to use your home’s equity for debt consolidation is another smart move. It is different to a second mortgage because this one doesn’t give you access to funds in a lump sum, rather this gives you a limit as to how much of your home’s equity you can use. You are free to use as little or all of that limited amount at any given time.

Because of the revolving credit nature of a HELOC, you are free to use a huge chunk of it to consolidate debt, pay off a portion of that, and take out small amounts for emergencies and the like. This option gives you more flexibility and freedom as compared to a second mortgage.

Try a Traditional Line of Credit

A traditional line of credit could be great but know that it is very challenging to qualify for. You’ll need an impeccable credit history and possess a great credit score. We all know that most of those who have a lot of loans don’t have that, to begin with.

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