Cash-out refinance

Using home equity to pay off debt Raleigh NC reduces the interest rate on existing balances — credit cards currently average near 20% APR while home equity products in North Carolina run between 7% and 8.5% for qualified borrowers in 2026. But a 20% debt paid aggressively over four years can produce less total interest than an 8% home equity loan stretched over fifteen years, which is the calculation most articles skip entirely. For Wake County homeowners holding mortgage rates below 4%, a cash-out refinance replaces the entire existing mortgage at today’s rate — currently 6.5% to 7% — which frequently erodes the consolidation savings before they materialize. Kevin Martini and Logan Martini of Martini Mortgage Group model four numbers before recommending any structure: total interest on the existing payoff trajectory, total interest under the proposed product, the impact on the existing mortgage rate, and the debt-to-income ratio before and after