Refinance opinions needed

[Trigger Time 23]

I personally am a believer in paying off debt, including a mortgage. I would not take equity out. Just my opinion.

[Irving]

I recently refinanced my house to get a lower interest rate and pay off some debt. The company I used wanted me to take enough to pay off a car loan I have. The car loan is a lower rate than my mortgage and of course a shorter term. The guy was kind of surprised that I questioned it and told him no to that portion.

Well done, I would have laughed in his face. I recently applied for a HELOC and the lady went on and on about how great they are and how she uses hers to finance trips to Vegas for her and her friend so they can get good rates on flights and hotels when deals pop up. The whole time I sat there thinking about how stupid out is to use a HELOC in that way.

[fportmen45]

I've always been of the mindset to not use a house as a credit card, but that's just me.

[davsel]

Call Mortgage Solutions Financial. Talk to them about your options. They'll be happy to run all the numbers for you.

[Jefe's AR]

Don't take any out. Refinance at 15 years (you should be able to do this if you can take $100K out + current for 30 years). You'll pay less in interest in both the APR and over the life of the loan. (this should be really obvious though). Do the bathroom out of pocket.

You asked for advice, that is mine. *If there's a need, you can take a line of equity credit on the $100K you left. Find an online amortization schedule and plug in the numbers and see how much you'll save.

*I don't recommend this but it's an option. It should be short term as well.

[Irving]

I'm a big fan of having a 30-year loan, and just paying it like it's a 15-year. If you ever run into money issues, you can come up with an extra $500- $1,000 out of your monthly budget instantly without worrying about making the mortgage payment.

[hurley842002]

I'm a big fan of having a 30-year loan, and just paying it like it's a 15-year. If you ever run into money issues, you can come up with an extra $500- $1,000 out of your monthly budget instantly without worrying about making the mortgage payment.

Hell of a plan, when I'm ready to buy, this will probably be my plan.

[Mr Spooky]

Thanks for all the insight. The wife and I just started discussing it. We do have a little credit card debt, about 4K on a 9% apr card (vet bill). All cars are paid off too. Was just thinking if we could refinance and drop the PMI and take out some extra to pay off the card and get the bathroom done and pay what we are paying now, might be worth it.

again thanks for all the input, very helpful.

[Irving]

Before you take out a loan to pay off the debt, see if you have another card that will let you do a balance transfer at 0% interest for 12-15 months. The transfer fee is usually 4-5% ($300-$450), but then you can really knock out that debt over the next year as you're paying all principle and you'll be motivated by the dead line. If you can't quite get it paid before the deadline, transfer the remaining balance to another card to avoid the interest. This ONLY works if you're not actively using the card you transfer, and you have should stop using all your other credit cards as well.

[Jefe's AR]

I'm a big fan of having a 30-year loan, and just paying it like it's a 15-year. If you ever run into money issues, you can come up with an extra $500- $1,000 out of your monthly budget instantly without worrying about making the mortgage payment.

I agree. But, you must be very disciplined about doing it. And most won't. My wife tried to logic me with that when we refinanced several years ago. I convinced her that 15 year was our best option as it would force us to pay. On the flip side, our interest rate, 3%, actually lowered our new 15 year payment to just slightly less than the 30 year we had previous. There's always the option to take a equity line of credit.

Plug in your numbers here and see how much a difference your all in costs really are.

http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/...alculator.aspx

Better yet, find a calculator that shows how much interest you're actually paying on a 30 the first 5-10 years. Add in the fact that a 15 is usually offered at a lower % rate for the same borrower and it just makes sense to me.