<prompt> Human: My girlfriend and I are looking to buy a house. It doesnt seem like it is in the cards at the moment. She is coming up with drastic ways to prevent PMI on the mortgage. Her idea is to take a 10,000 cash advance from her credit cards to combine our other cash into a down payment to avoid the PMI. I feel very uncomfortable with this.Theoretical house cost is 250,000. What are your thoughts?  <response>: Horrible, horrible idea. First, I seriously doubt you can get that much cash advance out of credit cards they are pretty stingy with cash advances. Second, the interest rates on cash advances will absolutely kill you, have you looked at your TOS? Its probably in the 20 range. 