Homeowners today treat their houses like piggy banks, readily transforming their equity into cash and credit. You have home equity loans (still sometimes called second mortgages), home equity lines of credit and reverse mortgages. Then there's cash-out refinancing.

Homeowners today treat their houses like piggy banks, readily transforming their equity into cash and credit. You have home equity loans (still sometimes called second mortgages), home equity lines of credit and reverse mortgages. Then there's cash-out refinancing.

In the spirit of Halloween, we found the spookiest reader stories that creeped their way into our editor's inbox at Bankrate. From Nigerian scams to evil customer service tricks, the tales that follow happened before and will happen again. Take a lesson from these dreadful experiences. Promptly file a complaint with any company that has mistreated you and report the business to a regulatory authority if necessary.

In this article on "What is No Cost Financing" I will explain the basics about no cost financing. But, before I go to what no cost financing is, many would like to know "what is financing" in general. For those of the little who do not know what financing is, please read on.

If you bought your home a few years back when annual interest rates were 12 percent, refinancing now can save you a great deal of money over the term of the mortgage. Or you might be able to switch from a 30-year mortgage to a 15-year, so you can pay off your loan in half the time with roughly the same monthly payments.