Mortgage payoff pitch is no panacea

Someone recently sent WalletPop a press release detailing what claimed to be one of those "eliminate your debt" strategies.

This one hinges on something called a "mortgage checking account." It's similar to a mortgage elimination scheme that proliferated in Australia a few years back and hopped onto our shores under a different name.

In this 2007 article, the Boston Globe explored what was then being called a "line-of-credit" mortgage and concluded that the scheme was more about marketing than merit.

The plan pitched to us by a company called MoneyDesktop purports to let you pay off your mortgage via a home equity line of credit (HELOC). In theory, you take out a home equity line of credit, deposit your paychecks into that line of credit instead of a checking account, and write a check paying down your mortgage in the amount you've just deposited.