VA Refi question for those who know: Do you have to pay the VA Funding Fee again if you re-fi? And you have to pay the higher rate, something like 3.2%?
We have a VA loan at 4.25% and get so many offers in the mail to refi, it's ridiculous. I just don't want to start over at 30 years again and pay the funding fee again.
Yes. Unless you have the proper disability rating with the VA (I *think* it's 100%, but I could be wrong) you have to pay the VA funding fee. There's also closing costs to consider. Depending on your area, it could be steep.
We do want to lower our interest rate, but we'd rather have a loan with a shorter life (like 20 years instead of 30) than have a lower payment. If we refi to another 30 year loan, our payments will go down. We could just pay extra on that loan to equal what we were paying before, but often loans with a shorter life have even lower interest rates than 30 year loans, so even if our payment needs to go up a little bit, we'd prefer to refi to a 20 year loan at a lower interest rate. --Katie
If you refi at 30 years, get a lower payment, and then make the payments you are used to now, you will shave off WAY more time on your loan than refinancing for a shorter term loan since all the extra will go to principle. From the interviewing we've been doing, the difference in interest rate between a 15 & a 30 year loan has been negligible. 3.5% for a 30 year or 3.25 for a 15 year. Some have said "as low as 2.75" for a 15 year, but we never seem to have the right qualifications for that.
Looking for lender recommendations. We purchased nearly 3 years ago. Our current rate is 4.75% We used USAA, who actually only originates the loans and then lets US Bank service them. We did not have a good experience with USAA mortgage, and I just read a BUNCH of one star reviews about their refinance program, so I'm considering other lenders. We are not looking for our payment to go down, but would love to shave a few years off our loan. Don't think we'll be able to swing going to a 15 year, but if someone offers a 20 year that might work for us. Any recent positive experiences? --Katie
We bought with USAA is 2007, refinanced with them in 2009 and had GREAT experiences both times. We did get farmed out to US Bank, who sold our loan to GMAC, who went bankrupt and now OCWEN has the loan. We have been getting offers in the mail as well. I called USAA, somehow I got a phone # for a company who "handles" their VA refi-
they did it themselves before - anyways, this company, I can't remember their name - American Family something - didn't give me the warm fuzzies or the stellar USAA service I'm used to, so we didn't go through with it.
We're in the process of "interviewing" banks to refi with. Our biggest problem is that our house is worth less than what we owe - not much, less than 10K thankfully, but that's a stumbling block for the banks who want an appraisal. I'm not writing off USAA, we love them as a bank and have never had any trouble or difficulty with them. I do know people who have had difficulty with USAA, but I think it's an individual thing. We never had anything but trouble from Navy Fed and ended up closing our account, when I know people who love Navy Fed.
