Looking for No Cost Refinance Option

[momoftwins]

Always get great info from these boards. I was wondering if anyone knows of any message boards that might help with locating mortgage options. We have an excellent credit rating and not underwater in our current loan and we are just looking to lower our rate.

Thanks for any info!

 

[Muushka]

In our area we have a couple of lenders that do no-cost re-fi. The advertise on the radio. If you google it with your area, I'm sure you can find one.

Just be sure to do your homework. If you plan on spending a long time in the house, you will probably get more favorable rates with some closing costs.

We did 2 in this house, offered by the lender to lower our rates. I did not request it. We were paying down pretty quickly so they offered it in the hopes that by lowering the rate we would keep the mortgage for the new terms which included extending the loan period. We asked if we could continue to make extra principal payments, they said yes, so we took the lower rates (twice) and just continued to pay what we did when the rates were higher.

We also got a no-cost re-fi when we had only been in this house for a couple of years. We paid about 0.5% higher loan rate than if we had done a conventional mortgage. Which seemed reasonable to us.

Good luck!

PS Those extra payments paid off! As of last week we are totally debt free!!!!

 

[newtodcl]

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/788032/?start=8440

 

[DisGeebs]

Its funny you mention this, my DH and I just did something similar to this. However it wasn't no cost, but it still helped us out. We called our current mortgage co to see if they could do a loan modification and they did it. We have only been in our house for 3 years so we can't really do a traditional refinance. We were able to bring out rate % down without changing the years left on the mortgage (just changing the Interest rate). We are saving $250 per month. It cost us $750 to do this. So, in a 3 months, it pays for itself. I hope that this can help someone out. More $$ for Disney!!!!

 

[mrsklamc]

Try a credit union.

 

[JenLanDisney]

Its funny you mention this, my DH and I just did something similar to this. However it wasn't no cost, but it still helped us out. We called our current mortgage co to see if they could do a loan modification and they did it. We have only been in our house for 3 years so we can't really do a traditional refinance. We were able to bring out rate % down without changing the years left on the mortgage (just changing the Interest rate). We are saving $250 per month. It cost us $750 to do this. So, in a 3 months, it pays for itself. I hope that this can help someone out. More $$ for Disney!!!!

Can you post a littlemore about this process?
How did you initiate it?
Was there as much paperwork/application as a regular closing?
Anything else you can warn people about (got-chas)?

Thanks!!

 

[starry_solo]

Have you contacted your current lender? A lot of times current lenders will do it

 

[poohguys]

Not sure what part of PA you are in but try Valley National Bank. They are here in NJ and they can do refinances for PA too. They have a refinance for $499.

 

[Laurawill]

I am refinancing with Quicken Loans right now. Our oop is just enough to set up our new escrow account, and then we will get a refund from our previous escrow account for about $300 less than we are paying for our closing. So almost a wash.

For us we are upside down in an FHA loan, and are doing an FHA streamline refinance. Our PMI is increasing but the amount of time we are having to pay the PMI is decreasing. Our interest rate is going from 5% to 3.875% for a 30 year fixed. Our overall payment is only going down initially about $75, but after we finish off the PMI (in about 7 years, only 5 if we are disciplined) it will go down another $170.

Refinancing is a very complicated decision and it is definitely in your best interest (no pun intended) to look around and get a few quotes. You will spend more on your mortgage than you will on anything else, so definitely weigh the options carefully.

And last but not least if you decide to at least get a quote from quicken make sure you go through upromise.com, you can get a $250 credit to your upromise account that you can then cash out toward disney, save for your or a family member or friends education, or pay off a student loan with.

 

[momoftwins]

Thanks for the ideas! We never take any cash out, and like Muushka indicated we just want to pay down our mortgage even sooner.

I will look into all of the options

 

[DisGeebs]

JenLanDisney --
Sure.. we just called our mortgage company which is a bank and said, we see that the mortgage rates are down, is there anything that you can do?
The only thing that may not work for some, is if the mortgage has been sold by the original lender. We lucked out that ours was with the same bank.
There is a little paperwork to have signed and it takes a month or 2 to get going, but there really aren't any downsides. its just a modification form that we have to sign and then get notarized. We actually did the same thing about 2 years ago with no issues at all. It was funny, my DH actually called back the bank the first time to ask what the catch was and there really isn't one. We always pay on time and extra so that should help you. We were at 5.5% and went down to 4.25%
I think the charge to do it would be the only "gotcha" but the bank told me up front about it so it really wasn't a gothca. I think that it may take a few months to "kick in" would be the other thing.
All I can say, is that it is worth a call to your lender to see if it is possible. The worse they can say is no. Hope this helps.

 

[momoftwins]

We have our mortgage through Citibank, and no kidding this is what they said: (I asked about just a rate reduction only: no charges/no cash out/no change in terms)

"We're sorry, but your credit score is excellent and I see you have made all of you payments on time. (The person I spoke thank me profusely for that.) Oh, I see you have quite a bit of equity in your home. Excellent."

Now for the clincher: "No we can do nothing for you. Maybe if you had been late on your payments or owed more than your house was worth"

Me: You're kidding, right?

Citi: Sorry, thank you for choosing Citibank.

Well, there you go. Only in America...

 

[Muushka]

We have our mortgage through Citibank, and no kidding this is what they said: (I asked about just a rate reduction only: no charges/no cash out/no change in terms)

"We're sorry, but your credit score is excellent and I see you have made all of you payments on time. (The person I spoke thank me profusely for that.) Oh, I see you have quite a bit of equity in your home. Excellent."

Now for the clincher: "No we can do nothing for you. Maybe if you had been late on your payments or owed more than your house was worth"

Me: You're kidding, right?

Citi: Sorry, thank you for choosing Citibank.

Well, there you go. Only in America...

The strange thing is that it was Citi Mortgage that refinanced us 2 times, unsolicited, at no cost to us.

It's sad that had you been irresponsible, you may have received help.

 

[momoftwins]

Muushka, I sent you a mail as I have a few questions. I do not want to tie up the board.

Thanks.