Yes, stating the obvious but a 20% mortgage is freaking insane!
I think your strategy of refi the large loan makes sense (I heard on the radio that some 30 years mortgages can be got for 3.6%), then using whatever means available to kill the 20% loan.. the interest free credit card makes a lot of sense, as long as you can kill the balance before the interest payments hit.
Good luck!
I think you misread it. OP has a 20% LTV 2nd mortgage at 10.25% APR. Not a 20% APR.
Yes, exactly. We bought the home with $0 down and did an 80/20 mortgage to avoid paying PMI. This was before 2008, obviously...
Payments slowed down because I work freelance, and so cash flow is erratic. These next few months will have a big windfall of invoices, so I imagine I'll be knocking this out pretty quickly.
The value of the home has not really moved since purchasing it in 2006, so no dice on a total refinance.
Re: doing a 0% credit card offer: I hadn't really considered it, as I was trying to keep my credit report clear of hard inquiries prior to the re-fi, and I've done a lot travel/rewards credit card churning as-is.
It looks like my Barclaycard US Airways (now American Airlines) card is offering me 0% until July 2016, with a 1% fee. I could have that $7k balance paid off @ ~$500/month for 14 months. Even with the extra $89 yearly fee, it's pretty tempting...