Has anyone looked lately?

30 yr fixed at 4.5 percent.

My banker is predicting 4 percent right after the first of the year.

Incredible!

We were looking to refinance because it is so low, but if it is going to drop more, I'll wait some.

Yeah, I saw on the news that they were dropping rates but the bad side of it is savings rates will be low too. Good time to buy a house with low rates and house prices down if banks will lend. Refinancing might be a good option too.

who has savings these days?

my savings all go into my 'birds.

We're at 5 and if it hits 4 like they predict we'll refinance.

For refininacing and buying a new home , its a good time right now, IF you have excellent credit rating AND if refi, your home is still worth enough that you will get credit for lots of equity...if you recently bought the home , I doubt its worth refi...you may have to pay to get it to appraise...

I was there in 1984...had bought a new home 6 mo earlier with the thought of doing a refi when I sold the old...but my house had lost $100k in value in the meantime...paid $250 in 83 , in 84 it was worth $150k...took 7 years to get back up...

"Honey, think of the money we can save to put towards our project each month..."

Wow, 100K loss in one year. I bet you weren't happy at the time. Glad it went back up for ya.

Not quite at 4.5% yet.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/18/AR2008121803532.html

Ha.. I wish
Had to sell my hunting lease membership, guns, bow, decoys, blinds, reloading equipment etc. etc. to pay for our new hobby. I'm not allowed to touch "our" (I'm the only one working) money.
I think it would be more like "Honey, think of the money we can save to upgrade the bathroom"

2 local banks in Minneapolis listed 4.5% this morning.

Washington post must not have caught up yet.

I think rates vary by region across the country. Not sure why.

We're getting ready to close at 4.375 through our credit union, 30 year fixed. If it drops between now and close so does the rate, locked from going higher.

We moved in June of 2007 and will have the house paid off in 16 more months. Lots of sacrifices in order to do this. I am waiting until the house is paid for before starting to restore the Firebird, remodel the house or buy her a new car. We have no kids or car payments, everything we own is paid for, except the house and utilities. We even conserve on the utilities to keep up with our quick pay off like using the clothes dryer to help heat the house when we are doing laundry, thermostat at 80 during the summer and 65 in the winter, fluorescent bulbs throughout the house, etc...... Her Honda Del Sol gets close to 40 mpg and I only drive my truck a little over 2,000 miles a year since I have a company work van, so gas prices aren't that much of an issue. We want to pay off the house so fast in case something happens to one of our jobs it will be one less thing to worry about and even if we pay have to pay the regular payment we have knocked off about 18 years off the 30 year mortgage and saved hundreds of thousands of dollars, which will go to the Firebird.

I refinanced last year (court ordered) at 6.625% 30 year $126k and a second mortgage at 8.5% for 15 years.

My FICO score is 722. What is considered "perfect credit".

Would it be worth refinancing if I could get a lower rate?

Have no cash to spare.

It sounds like it might be beneficial for ya. It depends on a few things like points, how long you plan to live in the house, when you last financed, credit history, etc. If I remember right, I don't think it's recommended to refinance more than every 3 years otherwise it doesn't pay. But with the rates so low, I doubt something like this will come around again. I don't think it would hurt to talk to a banker or look into it more. I think there are financial calculators online (where I don't remember) that can help figure if it's worth refinancing. I think you would have to get info from the bank on terms of the loan before you can calculate.

Tom: I bet you could consolidate into one 15 year loan for the same payment or less than you are making now. I'd definitely check into it. Typically, you need to stay in a place for 3-5 years to recoup the refi costs.

And I forgot to add that we eat at home and only go out to eat about twice a month. So I figure that by the time I'm 35 I will be done restoring the Firebird!

920 is perfect.

I agree. Go talk to someone to get an idea. I would probably wait until after the inauguration for max discount.

I thought, according to FICO, that "perfect" was 850..yet very few people actually hit 850. Most lenders use FICO scores.

For lending purposes, I doubt you have to have an 850 score. I was hoping 722 would be a top tier, low risk score capable of the lowest interest rate.

I think 850 is a perfect score, yet I have a 802, 797 and 795. I have never been late on any payment EVER and have paid off all loans very fast, so why isn't it higher? I have heard that each time your credit is checked it knocks off a few points, why?

was actually in 8 months....
history repeats itself....

When people talk about about house values over years or decades, you have to remember inflation too. I hope it is worth more than 250k in 2008.

you could have too high a credit on your cards ,even if you dont use them...they look at "what you COULD put on credit" too
lots of things credit vs income vs debt , history of pmts...
I have had PERFECT score for over 30 yrs ,but got a hickup 2 .5 yrs ago. ,now its 790.
I co signed with a friend on a bank acct , because he couldnt get credit due to an earlier bankruptcy....
he had his EBay acct tied to that bank acct...
he bought and sold cars on EBay, he bought a car that he went to Az to pick up...it was NOT as described ,he argued with the seller, who told him they would "work it out" , so he drove the car home...later thgey did not agree so he stopped pmt , EBay reveresd the charges, later revered them again, in the meantime he had closed the acct....
it went into collection....the bank notified me ,and I paid the $1497 the same day...but they STILL charged me w a "paid, closed, acct charged off/write off", even though I paid it...same day!
I have argued with Wachovia over and over...I`ve given up, but I`ll NEVER do business with Wachovia again! they say it will take until 2013 until thats wiped off....
I could have ignored the debt ,and I would be in the same boat!


a BUYER BEWARE! do NOT deal with WACHOVIA!

I have had credit cards since I was 15 years old, mom put me on here card accounts so I had my own card. I ONLY used them if I didn't have cash. I only have 2 credit cards now, one gas and one regular credit card. The gas card has like a $500 limit and the other one has a $15,500 limit . I still pay cash for everything so I almost never use them, except on ebay or online stuff, but I payoff the balance that next payment. Not sure about the gas card, but the other is like a 17% which is probably high but I always pay it off before it ever hits the interest. So what do I do?

This made me curious so I just went and checked mine again as it has been a while. It came up as a 797. It says that is better than 99.52% of US customers. I would not take the scores you provided as a bad thing, they are excellent. When I bought my latest car a couple of years ago, the salesperson said he had not seen a credit score that high before.

It looks as if for Experian, 830 is perfect, but it may vary by company.

Attached is the credit help page from their site.

Bjorn is right about available credit on cards etc. A few years ago we decided to downsize our house and was told by the bank that we did not qualify for a $50,000 mortgage ( even though it was less than half of what we had at that time). As it turns out, they had increased out line of credit and credit card limits so much (without our requests)that our available credit was through the roof. They gave us nothing but hassles trying to get this straightened out. Needless to say, we were pissed at them and took our business elsewhere, mortgage and investments. The competing financial institution treated us fairly without any hassles.

When we bought our house everyone looked at my 11 page credit report and said "wow, not one single late payment or decrepancy at all!" They also told me that I was in the top 1% I don't think they are bad numbers but if I haven't done anything wrong why isn't it higher?

Could be balances on cards greater than 35% of credit limit, credit history in length of time established, types of accounts..

A long term proposition was the amount of available credit and amount of cards. I have 9 open credit cards with a 41k limit, one motorcycle loan $21k, mortgage $150k.My credit score didn't drop when I opened a new $9500 account at Home Depot.

I'm 31, credit history goes back to when I was 15, so 16 years and I have never gone over my credit limit on any card and have a $0 balance on both cards. And we have about $50k left on the house. That is my only "debt" which will be over in less than 16 months, so then my credit score will go up to 830 or 850 or however high it will go right? Just kidding.

If a person has an account and closes it, that can hurt your score as well as having many accounts can. It's a bit ironic. Not sure on this, but I think paying off charges right away when the bill comes doesn't help build your rating. It helps you stay debt free but paying steadily over time can look better. But then the interest is money out of your pocket. I wouldn't recommend paying just the minimum payment. A $2000 debt at average credit card interest rate can take 8 years to payoff if you just make the minimum payment.

I don't know what my credit score is. Our income is low compared to our debts (mortgages, revolving credit, car loan). Our open lines of credit on credit cards are equal to more than 2x our yearly income. To make it worse, my husband and I are both considered self-employed. Yet we qualified for the best "preferred" rate offered by our credit union, which is well below market.

We carry balances on credit cards (up to $56K combined) when we are offered interest rates of less than 2% for a year or more, and make minimum payments followed by payoff at the end of the use of the nearly "free" money. That money is worked hard and pays back the transfer fees and interest many times over. Otherwise the cards are paid in full at each statement. The car loan is paid according to schedule, as are the mortgages. We had the house paid off in 7 years, but refinanced to remodel extensively and build a garage and provide working capital for our business. Our current refinance is to take advantage of lower rates at longer terms and swap two 15 year loans for one thirty year loan and a pocketful of cash while decreasing the minimum payment, so any additional payment goes directly to principal instead of interest.