The interest rates on a cash out refinancing are usually but not always lower than the interest rate on a home equity loan. From saving thousands consolidating debt to tapping into your home equity refinancing could be the solution to your problems. Refinancing may be undertaken to reduce interest costs by refinancing at a lower rate to extend the repayment time to pay off other debts to reduce ones periodic payment obligations sometimes by taking a longer term loan to reduce or alter risk such as by refinancing from a variable rate to a fixed rate loan andor to raise cash for investment consumption or the payment of a dividend.