Q. I have a $400,000 house with two mortgages. I owe $85,000 on a 15-year mortgage at 5.25% and $95,000 on a home equity line of credit at 7.5%. I also owe $70,000 on two credit cards with a fixed rate of 3.99%. Should I do a cash-out refinancing to consolidate my debt?

A. No. There's certainly no reason to ditch your excellent 5.25% primary mortgage.

With the Federal Reserve pushing short-term interest rates lower, your line of credit will probably become a little cheaper, too. If it reaches 7.25%, then the average interest rate on your existing mortgage debt would be a very affordable 6.3%.

Even if you could refinance for 6%, you wouldn't gain much -- especially when you take the cost of getting a new loan into account.

Finally, there's no way you'll ever get a mortgage that's as cheap as your two, fixed-rate credit cards. Any attempt to pay that $70,000 off with a cash-out refinancing will wind up costing you more.

So here's what to do.

Focus on paying off your home equity debt first. It's your most costly loan, even when you take the tax benefits into account.

Then start in on the credit cards. Our credit card calculator will help you develop a plan for doing that.

If we thought you could do all of this in a year, we'd suggest moving some or all of your debt to a new card that charges 0% on balance transfers. But those deals are only good for 12 months, and after that you'd almost certainly wind up paying more than 3.99%.

Keep it simple and be glad you have such great deals on your credit cards. If that ever changes, and your rate goes up, then consider a transfer.