If you have a Home Equity Line of Credit, you may have seen your payments and interest rate increase dramatically over the past few years.

HELOCs are convenient for funding intermittent needs, such as paying off credit cards, making home improvements, or paying college tuition. You draw and pay interest on only what you need.

In many cases, it is possible to refinance both your HELOC and your first mortgage without incurring mortgage insurance expenses. Very often your old 80/20 mortgage and HELOC can be consolidated into one loan with no mortgageinsurance with a substantially lower payment and increased savings to you.

If your HELOC rate and/or payment is increasing you have several options.
You can get a fixed rate equity or refinance your first and second mortgage into one mortgage loan.

Some home equity loans have options to fix your interest rate on a portion or all of your balance. Assuming your loan has this option, this would be one way to stop the rates from rising. On the other hand you may be able to get more favorable terms by refinancing into a fixed rate home equity loan.

If you are taking advantage of the "interest only" payment option allowed with Lines of Credit and the opportunity for payoff is beyond five years, a refinance to combine your current first mortgage balance with the balance of your second will most likely be the best route for you financially. This decision would best be measured after reviewing your mortgage balance and value along with your current credit and income status.