I will never understand the world of finance I.E. Debt consolidation is a fucking joke.

[Pacifist Patriot]

*sigh*

My husband and I are incredibly fortunate and have never missed a payment. So we have good credit. However, because of some medical and other personal issues over the last four years, we now have a hefty debt to income ratio. With interest rates the way they are we figured it would be a good time to consolidate these assorted debts into just a few lower interest payments. After all, we are receiving those obnoxious, "You're Pre-Qualifed for Astronomically High Line of Credit at a Too Good To Be True Interest Rate" or "You Qualify for a Cash Out Refinance at Practically 0% Interest" solicitations by the truck load each week.

Of course, now that we have started looking into it seriously, that astronomically high line of credit we are supposedly pre-qualified for is a tiny fraction of what was on the solicitation. And that interest rate? One-third of what we're approved for.

But that's not the most frustrating part. We have a mortgage and a second mortgage that together account for exactly 80% of the appraised value of our home. We would like to refinance to combine the loans. Just running the numbers based on the advertised rates at our bank, we should theoretically be able to combine the loans, shorten the term of the outstanding mortgage AND lower our monthly payment. BUT. Although we have been making separate payments on these two loans (actually I pay a little extra towards the principle on both each month) we cannot get approved to combine the bloody things to pay them off faster.

Debt consolidation my ass. Yes, I know these institutions make more money by keeping our debt separated and at higher interests. But don't fucking tell me I can't afford the payments on lower interest consolidated loans if I'm damn well keeping up with them now. Be honest and admit you're greedy fucking bastards.

My apologies to anyone whose livelihood depends on these bloodsuckers.

Cheers!