MMA will work with any income. It will work with any mortgage. There are a few things you need to qualify for it though:
1-positive cash flow. If you make $100 a month but spend $99 a month, MMA will work for you. Obviously, the more you make and the less you spend, the faster it works. There are ways to “create” positive cash flow. Ex: if your monthly expenses = your monthly income but you get paid weekly, you already have 2 weeks of pay as “extra cash” because some months you get 5 paydays. That also works if you get paid bi-weekly. It does not work if you get paid monthly or semi-monthly. Another way to create cash is to move your debt around. If you can consolidate your credit card debt onto your heloc, you have created positive cash in the amount of the monthly credit card payment. Does that make sense?
2-equity. We talked about this before. You need about 10% equity to “play with”.
3-ability to get the correct heloc. I think most lenders require a credit score around 620, but I’m not sure. The heloc has to be the right one though, or it won’t work.
As far as using a credit card, I don’t think it would be wise and here’s why. When you use a heloc to do this, any interest you pay is usually tax deductible and it isn’t on a credit card. So you can potentially recover some of that cost. Also, a heloc varies it’s rate according to prime, whereas a credit card still uses “universal default” which is where they can change their rate if you are a little late on ANY OTHER BILL – even if they offer you a fixed rate initially. Also, the late charges on a credit card are ridiculous, plus I don’t think they calculate interest in the same way. I don’t think they adjust the balance upon receipt of your payment several times throughout the month. I don’t think you have as much control over the balance as you do with a heloc.