anyone re-fi lately?

[Red in Chicago]

Been thinking about refinancing, but our current bank (Chase) does not seem to know what customer service skills are.

Have any of you refinanced lately, and if so, did you go with a local bank or big bank like Chase, Citi, etc?

While I'm at it, anyone ever use something like Lending Tree or Bank Rate to find a lender?

Thanks.

[Heath]

Check penfed.com

All online. I closed in 4 days. Got a great rate too.

[edabbs44]

In the middle of it. What a pain.

[SunDeck]

I'm in a re-fi currently. I could shave another .25 by shopping around, but we just ended up using the same bank we have used for our last three mortgages. Their closing costs are cheap, so maybe it's a wash anyway. We're knocking a point of our current rate.

[NJReds]

Yup. Modified w/the same bank where I had my 30 year. Just paid a fee (no closing costs). Went from a 30 to a 15 year (fixed, no points). I'm paying the same amount monthly, but knocked 9 years off the mortgage.

[SunDeck]

Originally Posted by NJReds

Yup. Modified w/the same bank where I had my 30 year. Just paid a fee (no closing costs). Went from a 30 to a 15 year (fixed, no points). I'm paying the same amount monthly, but knocked 9 years off the mortgage.

Man, looking at the amortization table on that can be eye-popping. We did the same on our last house and over five years plowed a boat load of money into our pockets instead of the bank's.

[Sea Ray]

Originally Posted by Red in Chicago

Been thinking about refinancing, but our current bank (Chase) does not seem to know what customer service skills are.

Have any of you refinanced lately, and if so, did you go with a local bank or big bank like Chase, Citi, etc?

While I'm at it, anyone ever use something like Lending Tree or Bank Rate to find a lender?

Thanks.

I tried Lending Tree a few years ago with no luck. You'll find that the rates on Lending Tree are not that great because you've added another middle man in there who needs to get paid. If you go through Lending tree the bank will offer you a rate about a half a point higher than they can offer you if you call them directly

[durl]

We did our re-fi a few months ago. I have a friend who's a mortgage broker and he found us a great rate. Our monthly payments went down quite a bit.

[redsbuckeye]

Going through it now, should be closing in a week or so.

Easy for me since I work for the bank I have my mortgage with.

[bucksfan2]

What are the rates you guys are seing?

I refinanced about a year ago and got a 5.5% 15 year mortgage. I have always heard if you can get a full point then it is worth re-fi so I am starting to look. I wonder what will happen to rates if Obama gets his way and starts offering 4% govt backed 30 year mortgages.

[redsbuckeye]

Originally Posted by bucksfan2

What are the rates you guys are seing?

I refinanced about a year ago and got a 5.5% 15 year mortgage. I have always heard if you can get a full point then it is worth re-fi so I am starting to look. I wonder what will happen to rates if Obama gets his way and starts offering 4% govt backed 30 year mortgages.

4.75. That's down from 6.375 from 2005. Pretty easy decision

[Unassisted]

About 2 weeks ago, the rates were to a point we could have gone from our current 30-year loan to a 15-year loan for just $50 more a month. We tried to get in on that deal last week and the rates had gone up, which would have forced us to pay a few thousand more in points to get the same deal. We're still shopping for a better deal.

My sister-in-law, who works for a mortgage lender, landed a 4.3% refi rate in December. She has access to better rate information than most of us do.

[durl]

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[SunDeck]

Originally Posted by bucksfan2

What are the rates you guys are seing?

I refinanced about a year ago and got a 5.5% 15 year mortgage. I have always heard if you can get a full point then it is worth re-fi so I am starting to look. I wonder what will happen to rates if Obama gets his way and starts offering 4% govt backed 30 year mortgages.

We went from 6% to 4 3/4 on a 30 year fixed. Locked in then saw the rate go to 4 1/4. But we didn't mind too much; we were happy to lock in a a point lower than the original rate and we're sort of risk averse and not into pushing our luck.

Of course, Congress will probably end up with some program backing 4% mortgages after we close. That's how things usually work for me.