refiance

Hi Deana - welcome to the forums!

Refinancing with bad credit may only put you in a worse, rather than better, situation than you are in now. With the subprime mortgage mess that's going on right now, all of the lenders are tightening their lending criteria, and many people with subprime mortgages or those looking to refinance with bad credit will find they are unable to. If you are able to refinance, you may end up in an adjustable-rate mortgage with a higher interest rate than you have now - not a good move.

Is it possible for you to seek help from a debt consolidation or settlement firm to handle your debts, or to set up a budget (and stick to it) so you can start improving your credit score?

The best way to start is to pull your current credit report, if you haven't already. You can do this by going to annualcreditreport.com. You can receive a free report, once per year, at no charge. There is no program to sign up for, and no fee for the report. (There is a fee to see your credit score, however.) You can print the reports, dispute any inaccurate entries online, and go back to review the reports after the disputes are handled.

If you have some small debts on the credit report that you could start paying off, start doing that as quickly as possible. Every paid in full debt will start improving your score.

Let us know if you need anything else, and keep us posted on your progress! :-)