wanting to refi

[angelaohio]

my mid score is 581 according to countrywide my current lender. my appraisal came in at 93k and my principal balance is 72K. in january i was 2 years chapter 7 discharged. i have had 1 30 day credit card late since bk. i have owned this house for a year. my ltv is 77%. my interest rate is a horrible 11%.

can i refi and do better than this?

[CindyLou]

ouch...that 30 day late kicked your butt! My advice before you do ANYTHING...pull all three credit reports and check them. 581 is very low 2 years out even with one 30 day late. I have a hunch there are things on there that shouldn't be.

[jal1129]

That is a very low score for 2 years after bk if you have only had 1 30-day late. Another suggestion would be to check your score yourself and not just take counrtywides word for it. A few years back we were getting a mortgage and the broker quoted us a terrible rate, like yours, when I asked what the problem was he said we had a 90-day late on our current mortgage within the past 12 months. I knew as a fact that was not true as I had never been late on my mortgage. So I pulled mine and DH reports and I could'nt find any lates. Called our current (at the time) mortgage company they said they were'nt reporting any lates and then proceeding to call all 3 credit reporting co. and all 3 said they were not reporting any lates. In fact Equifax told me if a mortgage broker was telling me they were reporting any lates to tell him he needed to learn how to read a credit report! lol

[HHM]

You might be able to get a marginally better deal only because interest rates are lower than they were a year ago, but as others have suggested, you need to pull your credit reports and see what is going on before you do anything else. I suspect you may need some credit report clean-up.

Based on the info your provided, your current P&I (principal & interest) payment is about $686. Assuming you are on a 30 year fixed mortgage, over the life of the loan, your current loan, you would pay $174,842 in interest. If you were to get a 10% rate, your P&I would be about $632 per month, and you would pay $155,466 in interest over the life of the loan. Keep in mind, that is over the course of THIRTY years. On an annualized basis, the 1% reduction in interest rate only saves you $646 per YEAR in interest. Also, keep in mind, you would be tacking on another year to your loan when your refi.

In any event, my advice to you, get your credit reports, do some credit clean-up or whatever needs to be done. Interest rates are NOT going up so you don't need to be in a rush to lock in some good deal (which with your credit score you won't get anyway), you have some time. Establish another year of payment history with your current mortgage company---and don't miss a payment. If you can get your score to 680, then a refi would be worth while.

[angelaohio]

I got appoved by eloan for 7.75% on a 20 year at $632 a month. i am currently paying $739 on a 30 year. so this is better. i think i will go with this for now. hopefully everything works out.

[HHM]

Great, that should work out nicely.