America is a land of many opportunities and achievements, and as a country, we have many positive traits. Drive, generosity, and ambition, to name a few.

But among our virtues, patience seldom makes the list.

We want what we want. We want it when we want it, and the when is usually right now.

Microwave food. Fast acting pain relievers. High speed Internet access. Instant messages on our computers and our cell phones. All indications of our inability and unwillingness to wait

People who offer poor credit refinancing play to this cultural weakness. And it is easy to do.

The fact is, people in need of financial help generally got there because of the very impatience that makes poor credit refinancing an attractive option.

The statistics vary from month to month and source to source, but all experts will agree that more than half of all Americans have serious levels of debt over and above their first mortgage.

Credit cards are easy to come by, and when one is maxed out, we just carry on with the next, until we can't even make the minimum payments.

That fancy car or boat we saw at the show seemed like a good idea at the time.

Plasma TVs, personal water craft, titanium golf clubs, all available with easy payments that can fit into any budget. Or so they say.

Payday loans at horrendous interest rates are another quick fix that just adds to the problem. It is not unusual for people to be trapped borrowing from one place to cover the loans at another, until the find themselves paying a thousand dollars or more a month in interest.

Poor credit refinancing came to the attention of the mainstream news with the Sub Prime Loan crisis, and the term Predatory Lender entered the national vocabulary. People were given access to loans without any serious attempt to verify their ability to make the payments.

Even the big banks and financial institutions got into the game, until we arrived where we are today, with defaults and foreclosures at levels not seen since the depression of the early twentieth century.

The real problem is not in our lenders, but in ourselves. Our lack of patience got us into the mess and we want out right away too.

Poor credit refinancing is not, in itself, evil, but like most things, it can be misused and misunderstood. These types of loans will never be at the best interest rate. And while they can provide immediate relief, often stretch your debt over decades.

Because until and unless the underlying problems are dealt with, the chances are that the money you have available with those 'lower monthly payments' will just go to accumulating more stuff you don't need and more bills you can't pay.

The best solution to handling debt is to attach it head on. It will be a long fight, but in the end, you will spend less. Work with your creditors to set up payments that you can handle. Get some bills paid off and use that money to pay off others.

Don't get further into debt.

A good budget can be a better plan than poor credit refinancing in the long run. It not keeps you out of long term, decades long debt, it provides discipline that will prevent you from getting into the same mess over and over again.