Well, took the plunge

[pyrxtc]

My Dh and I ahve have been talking about refinacing for a while. When we bought our house, my sister co-signed since my Dh and were both recently divorced and our credit rating with our exes were not that great.

Well, we tried out lendingtree.com, we got over 12 offers from 7 different companies. Woohoo! I guess we have fixed our credit enough. It has only been 3 yrs so this is awesome.

We are rolling ina ny CC debt and our cars since we know we will be refinancing again in a few years and the interest is way lower. Plus we can remodel a little bit more and insulate our pipes better. I hope everything goes just as well from here in. It also would mean that the only bill would be mortgage, electric, TV, and oil. Yay!

 

[kilee]

Good luck. Sometimes refinancing can be a great thing.

 

[C.Ann]

My post from last night was supposed to be a PM to you! Sorry about that - my head and my hands were suffering from a lack of coordination - LOL..

Have you already applied for the refinancing? If so, just be careful of the company you choose to go with and make sure you read ALL the "fine print"..

 

[dvcgirl]

My Dh and I ahve have been talking about refinacing for a while. When we bought our house, my sister co-signed since my Dh and were both recently divorced and our credit rating with our exes were not that great.

Well, we tried out lendingtree.com, we got over 12 offers from 7 different companies. Woohoo! I guess we have fixed our credit enough. It has only been 3 yrs so this is awesome.

We are rolling ina ny CC debt and our cars since we know we will be refinancing again in a few years and the interest is way lower. Plus we can remodel a little bit more and insulate our pipes better. I hope everything goes just as well from here in. It also would mean that the only bill would be mortgage, electric, TV, and oil. Yay!

It's great that your credit rating has improved. However, keep in mind that lending practices are incredibly lenient right now. Rolling in CC debt and car payments is generally not something that financial professionals will recommend. And by financial professionals, I'm not talking about most mortgage lenders (no offense intended) . They're in the business to lend you money...as much as they possibly can, and not many have all that many scruples. Rolling in car payments and CC debt is one of those things that sends shivers down my spine. I don't know if you've refied into a 30 year mortgage or kept your exisiting end date, but keep in mind that you're going to be paying on those cars and the things purchased on those CCs for a *long* time. In other words, the cars will be long gone, and the items on the CC tossed away and forgotten. But the mortgage payment you'll be making will still include that debt.

If you do decide to roll all of your unsecured debt into your mortgage, remember, you are now responsible for that debt because it is tied to your house...it is secured debt. In other words, if things got bad, desperately bad, you can lose your house. It's an important thing to think about.

If you are refi-ing and got a much better rate than you have, to me it makes sense to keep a little extra aside to insulate the pipes if it will lower your heating bill directly, but only if you plan to stay in that house for a number of years.

Also, this type of plan only works if you can go forward and stay out of CC debt. Otherwise, it is a cycle that can repeat itself again and again. You mentioned that you are going to refi again in a few years. Well, I wouldn't count on that as rates may very well be higher and the real estate market is rapidly cooling, even in the hottest areas. And so you may not experience the level of appreciation that you've experienced in the past few years.

Best of luck to you!

 

[HayGan]

Make sure that you don't have alot of these companies pulling your credit report on their own. Having many inquiries can have your credit score drop significantly very quickly! Pick one or two that you are familiar with or feel comfortable with and go with those. And please don't just jump on the one with the lowest rate. They are likely doing a bait and switch on you since you have stated that you have had some credit issues.

 

[binny]

We just did the same thing and it so nice to not have that debt. We did the same as you did, except the cars, we didn't have a huge amount on CC debt but enough that it was uncomfortable. Much of it was Medical bills ( before we knew better) so it got pretty ugly for a while.


anyway, congrats on repairing your credit! That is a huge accomplishment!

 

[fac]

Congrulation. You did good.

It feels good, right?

BTW, is lendingtree.com the only source?
I have never tried lendingtree.com myself. A few years ago when we bought our current house, I went to bankrate.com and just pulled down a few companies and choose one to apply.

When you said you will refinance again in few years, did you mean you plan to refinance the mortage in a few years again?

 

[my3kids]

Make sure that you don't have alot of these companies pulling your credit report on their own. Having many inquiries can have your credit score drop significantly very quickly!

My understanding is when applying for a car or home loan that all inquiries within 30 days for the same thing are counted as a single inquiry. Peopel are not penalized for looking for the best company to do business with. Now, within 30 days if someone shops for a car loan, a home loan, a furniture store credit plan and makes an installment purchase at Best Buy....then those would all be separae inquiries and do just as you noted..

 

[HayGan]

My understanding is when applying for a car or home loan that all inquiries within 30 days for the same thing are counted as a single inquiry. Peopel are not penalized for looking for the best company to do business with. Now, within 30 days if someone shops for a car loan, a home loan, a furniture store credit plan and makes an installment purchase at Best Buy....then those would all be separae inquiries and do just as you noted..

Well, technically any inquiries for the same purpose (mortgage or car loan)within a 14 day period should count as one inquiry. Any inquiry can drop your score a few points and for some people the drop can mean a huge difference in your program/rate! If additional inquiries are made outside of that time frame will have an effect on your score.

 

[pyrxtc]

well for us, it makes the most sense to roll in the CC debt. it is from Dh previous marriage (over 6 yrs ago) and still has not gone down. So paying it off will reduce the interst rate and also we have some school loans of DH's that will not be paid off for 20 yrs anyways. Rolling the cars in just makes sense to help us save money each month.

yes, we will try to refinance again in a few years ( 5 or so) unless we move by then and if we do, the estimated value of our house is 2 1/2 time what we paid for it, so everything would be paid off in full with the sale of our house and we would still have a windfall of over $100,000 at the sale, especially if the prices up here keep going up as the ski resort gets bigger and the lake becomes more well known. I know we will still hae the same cars in 5 yrs baring any accidents, and it makes sense for us to roll it all in one. Home inprovements are also a big thing for our house since it has drafts everywhere and our pipes freze in the winter in the master bath, so insulation is the first big thing and a new front entry is the second. The glass is broken on one side of the panel and we were planning on doing it anyways.