Mortgage Refinance Experts

[Erica Ladd]

We are told we can’t find out a rate/points for a refi without a hard credit pull. I get it but if what they offer doesn’t sound competitive I’m afraid looking at another company or two will negatively affect our credit with all the hard pulls. Advice? We have great credit score, want to drop it a 15 year (currently have 21/30 left) no cash out.

 

[AgentMama]

Can they give you anything if you give what you believe or know your credit score to be?

 

[barkley]

have you looked into credit unions? for the heck of it i just looked at the public (no member sign-in needed) portions of 3 credit unions local to me and all of them showed the rates, points and fees they were offering for re-fi's. a couple had online calculators to run the numbers on what the totals would be based on your individual loan amounts. we used a credit union for our last mortgage and felt the service/rates were far superior to any bank or private company we used for prior homes.

 

[tvguy]

Wow, most lenders post that information on their website. My daughter bought her house 2 years ago and refinanced this year with the same mortgage broker. No credit pull, no points, no fees. Cost her nothing, which I found hard to believe as was the 2. 6% rate she got.

 

[nicolita3]

We are told we can’t find out a rate/points for a refi without a hard credit pull. I get it but if what they offer doesn’t sound competitive I’m afraid looking at another company or two will negatively affect our credit with all the hard pulls. Advice? We have great credit score, want to drop it a 15 year (currently have 21/30 left) no cash out.

I refinanced just this month. When I first looked into it they gave me a rough estimate of what my interest rate would be and new monthly payment. They couldn't give me the final numbers until they did the hard pull once they did that they gave me the numbers, but once, I got my appraisal the numbers were even better.

 

[BGparadise]

Most of the places I went through recently required a hard pull, that being said I remember hearing that when shopping for a loan of this type as long as they are close together it would not impact your credit for the additional pulls. The following is a excerpt from Equifax:

https://www.equifax.com/personal/ed...tanding-hard-inquiries-on-your-credit-report/
Exceptions to the impact on your credit score

If you’re shopping for a new auto or mortgage loan or a new utility provider, the multiple inquiries are generally counted as one inquiry for a given period of time. The period of time may vary depending on the credit scoring model used, but it's typically from 14 to 45 days. This allows you to check different lenders and find out the best loan terms for you.

All new auto or mortgage loan or utility inquiries will show on your credit report; however, only one of the inquiries within a specified window of time will impact your credit score.

This exception generally does not apply to other types of loans, such as credit cards. All inquiries will likely affect your credit score for those types of loans.

 

[DisneyHardin]

When we refinanced a year ago, I believe the mortgage broker told me what rates were, but told me that she couldn't guarantee anything until they did a credit pull. It's totally understandable that they won't guarantee a great rate to someone with terrible credit.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Yes too many hard pulls will be a negative impact on your credit.

 

[MDFam]

We are told we can’t find out a rate/points for a refi without a hard credit pull. I get it but if what they offer doesn’t sound competitive I’m afraid looking at another company or two will negatively affect our credit with all the hard pulls. Advice? We have great credit score, want to drop it a 15 year (currently have 21/30 left) no cash out.

Just go to zillow.com, hover over Home Loans at the top and select Mortgage Rates. You put in your information for refinancing, including filters for loan length, rates, points, fees etc, and get a whole list of quotes. The information you enter is only the value of your home, current mortgage amount and filters - nothing that identifies you and so no credit pull just to get this list.

 

[clh2]

my 2 cents: if you are refinancing, ask your current company what their current rates are.

My daughter got really ticked off at the credit union her DH wanted to use. Every time they needed a preapproval letter, the CU did a hard pull on their credit. We suggested “our” bank, and they’ve been there since.
I would see what info they have online, and if someone gave my the “we can’t give you rates unless we do a hard credit pull”: I would be moving on to the next opportunity.

 

[princesscinderella]

I’m in the middle of a refinance with third federal bank it’s taken about 3 months time so they sent me a $10 Starbucks card as an apology. They had a great program with only $295 in closing costs and I got a 2.79% interest rate for 10 years from our 15 yr mortgage that was at 4.25 so I’m saving $20k over the life of the loan. They don’t lend in all the states but it’s been an easy but a lot of waiting process so far.

 

[OKWFan88]

I just refinanced my home and before I bit the bullet I did an application thru Better.com and they initially did a soft pull on credit that didn't affect my credit and I was able to see rates and points. They have no origination fees and to lock in your rate they charge you the appraisal fee upfront and credit your closing costs for it later. I have gone thru a bunch of big banks before to refinance but this most recent experience was the most easy and simple that I've ever encountered. Everything done online and super user friendly website. I closed in 3 weeks. I did a 15 year fix at 1.875 rate.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Yes too many hard pulls will be a negative impact on your credit.

No. That is not correct.

Hard pulls of the same type in the same short period of time count as one hard pull for the algorithm.

 

[Erica Ladd]

Thanks everyone. This has been frustrating to say the least

Can they give you anything if you give what you believe or know your credit score to be?

No they won’t give us any information which is why I haven’t proceeded yet. AND this IS the company that holds our current mortgage (perfect payment history,etc). If I can figure out exactly how long this period is where hard pulls for a refi will only count once against our credit then I will definitely move ahead and inquire with several banks/CUs. We belong to 2 CUs and are USAA members but none of their rates are very competitive. I do see Better.com up there on lists of best rates but I also see higher APRs. DH is the spread sheet guru so if I can just get the info from these places we can make a quick snd informed decision. Something about our current company just rubs me the wrong way the way they are being so elusive….

 

[spiders]

I've always used bankrate.com -- that will give you several lenders with their interest rates and points. No hard inquiry but of course there won't be a rate lock or anything like that without a hard inquiry. But as someone mentioned, once you authorize a hard inquiry then let all of them do it within 14 days. If you have 10 of them do it then all 10 will show up on your credit report but within 14 days of the first, it's all the same affect.

 

[Erica Ladd]

I just refinanced my home and before I bit the bullet I did an application thru Better.com and they initially did a soft pull on credit that didn't affect my credit and I was able to see rates and points. They have no origination fees and to lock in your rate they charge you the appraisal fee upfront and credit your closing costs for it later. I have gone thru a bunch of big banks before to refinance but this most recent experience was the most easy and simple that I've ever encountered. Everything done online and super user friendly website. I closed in 3 weeks. I did a 15 year fix at 1.875 rate.

Can I ask about points you were charged to get your rate or any particular rate?

 

[OKWFan88]

Can I ask about points you were charged to get your rate or any particular rate?

When we locked in our rate the website gave us so many options. With or without points. We chose paying half a point to get under 2% on a 15 year but frankly paying no points we would have been at 2.15 or something close to that. Better.com who we used has their own title company and their fees were reasonable. There were no origination fees or hidden fees. The closing costs which included if you got any points plus title fees and then your typical prepaid items that is on every mortgage. Appraisal is paid when you lock in your rate. I think we paid a couple thousand in closing costs.

 

[HulaHoopy]

We did a refi this summer with LoanDepot. Rocket Mortgage would have given the same rate, but charged about $6K more in closing costs. I didn't really worry about having two places pull the credit.