Low Cost Mortgage Leads

You might think that deciding to refinance a mortgage requires
only a quick comparison of loan interest rates. Unfortunately,
thats not really true. Refinancing is trickier than that!
Fortunately, three useful rules of thumb can often help you make
sense of refinancing opportunities.

Rule 1: Dont Ignore Total Interest Costs

You really want to use refinancing as a way to reduce the total
interest cost you pay. While that sounds simple in principle, it
is sometimes difficult to do. The interest costs you pay are a
function of the interest rate, the loan balance, and the loan
term period.

When people refinance, they tend to focus solely on the loan
interest rate. But they often dont pay as much attention to the
loan term or the loan balance.

When you use refinancing–even refinancing at a lower interest
rate–to increase your borrowing or to extend the time over
which you borrow, you often arent saving money.

Rule 2: Trade Expensive Money for Cheap Money

For refinancing to make economic sense, however, you do need to
swap higher interest rate debt for lower interest rate debt.
This calculation, however, is tricky. To make an
apples-to-apples comparison, you must look at the annual
percentage rate that will be charged on your new loan–this is
the best measure of the new loans interest rate cost–and then
compare this to the loan interest rate on your old loan.

You dont want to compare interest rates on the two loans nor do
you want to compare annual percentage rates on the two loans.
Again, just to make this perfectly clear: You want to compare
the loan interest rate on the old loan to the annual percentage
rate on the new loan.

When the annual percentage rate on the new loan is lower than
the loan interest rate on the old loan, then you are truly
paying a lower interest rate.

Comparing annual percentage rates with loan interest rates seems
confusing at first. But note that you would pay only interest on
your old or current loan, so thats all you need to look at in
terms of its costs. With a new loan, however, you would pay both
interest and any origination or closing cost fees. The annual
percentage rate wraps the interest rate charges and setup
charges, origination charges, and closing cost fees into one
interest rate-like number.

Rule 3: Dont Lengthen the Repayment Period

Be careful that you dont extend the length of time you borrow
by continually refinancing. For example, one common rule of
thumb states that every time interest rates drop by two
percentage points, you should refinance your mortgage. However,
there have been times in recent history when following this rule
would have had you refinancing your mortgage every few years.
This could mean that you would never get your mortgage paid off.
If you refinanced every few years, you would suddenly find
yourself still 30 years away from having your mortgage paid.

About the author:
Bellevue accountant &
author Stephen L. Nelson is the author of Quicken for
Dummies. He holds an MBA in Finance and an MS in taxation.

During the last few decades, we moved many times from place to
place, buying and selling houses and other property. To my
knowledge, not even the most respectable bank that carried our
mortgage ever had anything to do with any FICO score. I first
heard “FICO score” mentioned, about six or seven years ago, when
one of my children worked for a mortgage company, and I found
out from him that FICO score has been around since the 1950s,
after Fair, Isaac and Co. (therefore the acronym FICO) developed
a certain method to determine the credit risks of borrowers.

FICO scores range from 300 to 850, the higher the better. The
majority of scores are in the levels of 600-700. The desirable
ones are 720 and higher. FICO scores are designed to measure the
risk of delinquency by considering several past and present
issues, such as the length of credit history, punctuality of
payment, current debt including tax liens and money owed as a
result of a court judgment, recent searches by the consumer to
obtain credit, and the amount of credit received up to date. The
exact formula for obtaining the FICO scores, however, is held
secret and–it beats me, but–this conduct is accepted by the
Federal Trade Commission.

Three nationwide companies, Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion,
use the FICO scores for credit reporting. All three of these
companies are required by law to provide the consumer–you–with
a free credit report every twelve months.

You might ask: “If we have the FICO scores, then why do we have
a credit report? Arent FICO scores enough?” A credit report is
more than a FICO score. A credit report gives extra information
on you, as to where you live and have lived, whether you had a
run-in with the law, and if you were sued or filed for
bankruptcy. The FICO score, as a general rule, is attached to
the end of a credit report.

Your credit report is important. The information in it has to be
up to date and correct, because it will be used not only for the
purchases you make, but also when you are applying for a job.
You need to get your credit score and take measures if the
information in it is not correct or has become stale. Consumer
reporting companies are required by law to correct anything
wrong or inconsistent after they investigate your claims.

To obtain your free credit report, you might consider writing to
each one of the three companies (Experian, Equifax, and
TransUnion) and getting a separate credit report from each one.
Dont be surprised if you find small differences among these
reports because each company does its own calculating in its own
way. Getting all three reports is especially necessary if you
find something inconsistent in your credit history and you need
to correct it with all three of them.

If you feel your credit history is good, the best way to get
your free credit report is getting a form from Annual Credit
Report Request Service (http://ftc.gov/credit), and filling and
sending it to P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281; or if you
wish, you can get it online from annualcreditreport.com.

Do not, at any time, believe in the companies or online sites
that promise to get you your free credit report. Most of them
eventually ask for fees and start charging your credit cards,
because you have accepted their services and they have your data
in their hands.

Does every lender pay attention to the FICO score? Luckily, not
all; although most may. In the beginning, FICO scores had little
or nothing to do with mortgage lending. About five or six years
ago, however, mortgage lenders realized that there was a certain
connection between the negligent behaviors of borrowers and
their credit scores.

After a couple of years of heavily relying on the FICO scores,
mortgage companies are beginning to change their attitudes on
the subject again. Lenders like Fannie Mae and some private
mortgage companies do their own investigations as well as taking
into account your credit report as a whole.

A few tips before applying for a mortgage:

* Do not leave or change your job, especially if you have worked
there for some time and you are not replacing it with a more
secure and better paying job.

* Make sure your credit cards are not charged to the max.

* Do not ever be late in paying your existing mortgage. At
least, dont be late for more than a month.

* Discuss and bargain with small lenders (Dept. Stores etc.),
businesses, and collection agencies to remove any late payments.

* If you have a federal student loan, seek to remove “default”
or “collection” labels from the loans history.

* Get into the habit of paying your bills on time.

About the author:
Joy Cagil is an author on a site for Writers
(http://www.Writing.Com/) Her education is in foreign languages
and linguistics. In her background are varied subjects such as
psychology, mental health, and visual arts. She has been taking
courses on money and finance matters during the last couple of
years. Her portfolio can be found at

http://www.Writing.Com/authors/joycag

Reverse (lifetime) morgages are different from ordinary home
morgages, in that they dont require payment, but instead
allow the borrower to acquire a debt during their period of
property ownership. The acquired debt generally isnt payed off
until after the borrower dies, at which time it is subtracted
from their estate.

Because of their time-sensitive nature, and lack of payment
requirement, reverse mortgages are generally only available to
elderly retired people, who have some assets, but cant afford
to make regular payments, due to low income or high morgage
rates.

About the author:
Jeremy Maddock is the webmaster of FinanceFacts.info, a useful
source of finance
articles.

A large number of prospective homeowners are interested in
acquiring mobile or manufactured homes. Should these homeowners
require financial assistance, they will need to take the
assistance of approved lenders who make the money available from
their own resources as FHA does not lend money for this purpose.

Since these loans are not government funded, they are not low
interest loans. The interest rate is fixed based on prevailing
market rates. However, since the loan is privately funded, you
can take this to mean that mobile home loans are also available
to persons with poor credit, albeit at a higher interest rate to
compensate for the greater risk involved.

Regardless of the source of funding, lending institutions place
certain conditions on the loan advanced for mobile homes. The
home being financed has to be used as the principal residence by
the person taking the loan. The maximum loan amount and tenure
depend on the location and can vary with in designated high cost
areas. Tenures vary between 15 to 25 years.

Manufactured or mobile homes are usually sold through dealers or
retailers. These dealers themselves can give you names of
lenders who specialize in financing these types of homes. They
will have the necessary certification to prove that the home in
question complies with the construction and safety standards.
They will also help you to complete the documentation required
to complete your loan application.

Essentially, the prospective homeowner needs to demonstrate that
he has the financial stability to service the loan, he should be
able to pay 5% down payment at the very least and have a
suitable site – leased or owned where the home can be placed.
The home itself must meet the required safety criteria and
standards and carry a one year warranty. It must be erected on a
site that meets the standards for sewage disposal and supply of
water, electricity etc.

The law also prohibits the use of the loan to purchase furniture
etc. However, it can be used to finance anything that is built
in to the house. This could include various appliances such as
air conditioners and wall to wall carpeting.

It is amply evident therefore that the mere fact that you have
chosen a mobile home or a manufactured home is no excuse for a
lender not to lend you money- so far as the home meets the
required criteria in terms of site, manufacturing standards and
owners contribution. In fact, the Fair Housing Act gives you
specific protection to ensure that you are not forced to accept
higher interest rates etc simply because you are from a minority
community etc.

Please visit our site to find more useful articles on mortgage:

http://www.mortgage-lounge.com/tricks-lower-mortgage-interest.htm

l and credit card: http://www.creditcardlounge.com

About the author:
Al Falaq Arsendatama has written a number of useful articles on
home loan and credit card. Visit our site
http://www.mortgage-lounge.com for more information.

Your credit has everything to do with home mortgage rates as
lenders charge more points and higher interest charges to
consumers with bad credit. Poor credit always implies greater
risk, so lenders are entitled to be compensated for the risk
they are taking.

If you are a borrower who enjoys good credit, however, you
should at all cost avoid getting into deals where the rates and
points are at par with those for bad credit. There are plenty of
cases of borrowers with good credit being charged the same rates
as those with bad credit. Enjoying good credit requires effort
and sacrifice, so you have every right to be charged much better
rates than consumers with bad credit. Even if it means having to
look a little harder to find them, you should pay rates that you
deserve.

Explaining Risk and Loan Points Every point on a loan refers to
the fee amount of one percent of the loan amount. Consumers with
good credit may be charged no points at all while bad credit can
earn as many as four points. However caution is necessary as
unscrupulous lenders may charge up to ten points if they think
they can get away with it. It is up to you to make sure that
they dont, in your case.

Nevertheless there are situations where the lenders have to take
risks far greater than the average. In such cases it may be
justified to be charging more than the normal rates. Brokers
often claim that they charge higher points as they are taking
the risk of lending to those no other lenders will lend to. More
often than not, this may not be true. With sufficient effort and
time, a consumer will be able to find a lender willing to lend
him the loan. These lenders are much more likely to treat the
consumer in all fairness.

Not giving due attention to points being charged can prove
costly to a consumer. Different terms may be used for points
with some examples like origination fees, broker fees, discount
fees and yield spread premium.

Front and Band End Points Despite these terms, there are two
basic types of points. The first is the upfront fees that the
consumer pays to the lender. It is a form of compensation paid
to either the lender or the broker for making the loan
transaction possible.

A back end point is the other type of points that the lender
pays to the mortgage broker. Sometimes they act as extra
incentive for a particular loan. But it is mostly for loans
given at a higher rate of interest as a reward to the broker.
The problem occurs when these points spur unscrupulous lenders
to hike up the rates with the consumer being absolutely unaware
of it.

About the author:
Paul Lerner enjoys writing about a variety of mortgage topics,
including advice on getting a home mortgage quote.