My dad always said that banks only loan money to people who don't need it.  We decided to apply for a home equity loan for various reasons.

We have a couple of credit cards we use to pay household bills and then we pay the bill in FULL when it is due.  I had one card we were carrying a balance on at 0%.

The lender demanded that we have NO balance showing on any credit card accounts before they would continue to process the loan application.  Whaaaa.....???  The cards I have give between 1% and 5% cash back, but I can't continue to get that benefit so I can show that I don't need a loan to be able to get a loan.

So being wise with my credit cards is working against me.  Think about it, if I get a 5% cash back on purchases and I make $500.00 worth of purchases every month, that means in a year I get $300.00 cash back every year.  That is enough to make the payment on the loan for one month.

$  500.00
x         12
$ 6000.00
x        .05
$  300.00

As the saying goes:  Go Figure! 

So, I have paid off the credit cards now so it looks like we don't need a loan.  I hope the credit card companies don't get mad at me for not needing their credit too.