many of them are skipping their mortgage payments to pay off the plastic and that is not a good thing. all of the housing bail outs are to blame. cheryl. government is in the middle of the housing finance that s why the market is commitose. we built it with fred yefanny and prolonged it with hope and help for homeowners and told the banks to lend but not to lend and government is at the center of this and they bailed out so many individuals pro longing the misguided notion that you have a right to have a home. wayne, is this the government s fault and why the economy is in trouble right now. no, it is not the government s fault at all. credit cards have a higher interest rate and a why would i pay off the housing mortgage i can pay off the credit card.