Home Equity Loan (not heloc) to consolidate cc balances?

[m_jonis]

If my total util is 23% right now (approx. 35,000 in cc balances), and I got a home equity loan (not a HELOC) to say, pay off $28,000 of that (the other 7,000 is 0% spread over 4 diff. cc--lowes, HD, Sears, and Best Buy), would that "help" my FICO score? (Right now around 710 or so) I know all the pitfalls of consolidating CC debt (you want to ring up more debt, etc.) I'm looking at trying to do two things: a) Increase FICO score b) Decrease the interest I pay. The average on 23,000 of the 28 is about 5.9%, the other 5,000 is like 2.9/3.9 The bulk of the debt was for home improvements (deck, kitchen remodel, etc.). I'm paying down an extra $5-6,000/year on the debt (in addition to the monthly payments).

[Anonymous]

Depending on alot of factors- getting a straight HEL under 6% may be challenging- but at least the interest is deductible-

The FICO hit for the new account will get zapped by the deducted utl. Still sounds like good financial decision-for the exception on moving unsecured debt to secured-

---

@m_jonis wrote:
If my total util is 23% right now (approx. 35,000 in cc balances), and I got a home equity loan (not a HELOC) to say, pay off $28,000 of that (the other 7,000 is 0% spread over 4 diff. cc--lowes, HD, Sears, and Best Buy), would that "help" my FICO score? (Right now around 710 or so) I know all the pitfalls of consolidating CC debt (you want to ring up more debt, etc.) I'm looking at trying to do two things: a) Increase FICO score b) Decrease the interest I pay. The average on 23,000 of the 28 is about 5.9%, the other 5,000 is like 2.9/3.9 The bulk of the debt was for home improvements (deck, kitchen remodel, etc.). I'm paying down an extra $5-6,000/year on the debt (in addition to the monthly payments).

---

[Anonymous]

Home Equity used for home improvement - okay in my book even if transfering unsecured to secured - it added value to the house by doing the improvements.