Ashweekins

Just pulled FICO scores. EX - 722 EQ - 755 TU - 756 No inquiries, no baddies 11 years of perfect credit history (THANK YOU, CREDIT BOARDS!!!!) I don't want an AMEX. I would like some very good balance transfer cards since we've been living on DH's credit until now. I'd also like some good travel rewards cards. Thanks!

Bump for February!

I don't really understand how/why they are discontinuing the rewards on a debit card that I pay an annual fee for?? Can someone explain this to me. They referenced the Durbin Amendment as their reasoning. I never used the card as debit as debit purchases do not earn miles. Using the debit card as credit is what earns the miles. The Continental Rewards debit card was the only reason we banked at Chase, and earning miles was the only way we'd be able to take a vacation. Annoyance doesn't even begin to describe what I'm feeling! http://www.businessinsider.com/the-durbin-amendment-will-make-you-give-up-your-debit-card-2010-12

I think we are going to go ahead and go through with the 15 year mortgage. We'll be debt and mortgage free before we're 40!!!! That's amazing to me. We have to have an appraisal. We aren't sure what to expect. The yard is looking good, and we're going to plant some flowers. We'll probably change out some of the fixtures like towel rods, maybe a few light fixtures, and shampoo the carpets and give the house a good deep cleaning. We're just debating whether or not it will make a difference if we paint inside. It's a huge hassle and I really don't want to do it if it's not necessary.

Thanks, Heg!

Thanks TexasTech97 for the info about the points and claiming them on your taxes. I must claim ignorance that we don't know how to adjust our W-4s so that we don't end up owing taxes. We claim mortage interest, school expenses, charity donations, etc. I don't have the slightest idea how to go about doing that. We just don't want to owe anything. My husband spoke to the loan agent on Friday, and our mortgage is under Fannie Mae, and this is apparently at Fannie Mae DU RefiPlus. For a 15 year fixed rate loan, he sent us a "GFE" for 4.375%, and we would not have to pay for points. The closing costs would be rolled into the loan. This would raise our payment $172/month. We could make the payment work, but it would cut in to our credit card and auto loan debt snowball. The good thing is that if we don't appraise at 21% LTV, that we will have it in 12 months or less anyway, and can drop the $100/month PMI, which would help. The credit union called and said that there isn't anything they can do for us because all 3 of his scores are not above 650, and they do not own the loan.

My husband spoke to him again today, and our mortgage is under Fannie Mae, and this is apparently at Fannie Mae DU RefiPlus. For a 15 year fixed rate loan, he sent us a "GFE" for 4.375%, and we would not have to pay for points. The closing costs would be rolled into the loan. This would raise our payment $172/month. We could make the payment work, but it would cut in to our credit card and auto loan debt snowball. The good thing is that if we don't appraise at 21% LTV, that we will have it in 12 months or less anyway, and can drop the $100/month PMI, which would help. The credit union called and said that there isn't anything they can do for us because all 3 of his scores are not above 650, and they do not own the loan.

Do you think the rates will be the about the same in 6-9 months? We've only been snowballing debt for 5 months, and September would make a year. The only way his scores are going to go up will be as we pay things off and reduce the utilization to at or below 30%. Thank you for your help and answering my questions, we really appreciate it. Things have drastically changed in 3 years, and there's not a whole lot of information on refinancing unless you have an ARM.

What is considered a good rate for a 20 year fixed interest? and at 15 years? I have bad credit, and the current mortgage is in DH's name and on his credit only. His median credit score is 665, and the DTI is 49.5%. We are working to pay this down and have been successful, but again, still have a year and half left.

My husband and I bought our home in October 2007 with a 30 year 100% finance fixed rate mortgage at 6.85% interest. We owe 189k, and our house is worth 230-240k. We started snowballing our credit card and car loan debt in September 2010, and plan to finish paying everything off in September 2012. We are planning on using our tax return to help our debt snowball along. I recently called our mortgage company with a question about our escrow account, and the woman would not let me hang up without agreeing to let someone call us about refinancing. We called them back, and found that we could refinance for 20 years at 5.35% fixed interest, with $5-6k in closing costs rolled into the loan. The payments would be $22/month more than what we pay now. If we wanted to, we could pay $3500 for a point to lower the interest rate from 5.35% to 5.00%, and they would roll the extra $3500 into closing, and our payments would be the exact same as what we pay now. We are also starting the quote process with our credit union, who mentioned that if we pay for points we could get down in the 4.something percent range, but we don't have all the details yet. We have previously kicked around the idea of refinancing while rates are low, but I want to pay off credit card and auto loan debt first, then save up the closing costs. But, by that time the rates may have gone up. My qualm is rolling the closing costs into the loan. I feel like that is taking a step backward. We could use our tax return to pay the closing costs, but that would set us back in paying off our credit card and auto loan debt. We can write the $3500 we pay for points off on our taxes next year, so that is something to take into consideration. What do you think? I posted this in the Mortgage forum but I thought I would get opinions from this forum.

My husband and I bought our home in October 2007 with a 30 year 100% finance fixed rate mortgage at 6.85% interest. We owe 189k, and our house is worth 230-240k. We started snowballing our credit card and car loan debt in September 2010, and plan to finish paying everything off in September 2012. We are planning on using our tax return to help our debt snowball along. I recently called our mortgage company with a question about our escrow account, and the woman would not let me hang up without agreeing to let someone call us about refinancing. We called them back, and found that we could refinance for 20 years at 5.35% fixed interest, with $5-6k in closing costs rolled into the loan. The payments would be $22/month more than what we pay now. If we wanted to, we could pay $3500 for a point to lower the interest rate from 5.35% to 5.00%, and they would roll the extra $3500 into closing, and our payments would be the exact same as what we pay now. We are also starting the quote process with our credit union, who mentioned that if we pay for points we could get down in the 4.something percent range, but we don't have all the details yet. We have previously kicked around the idea of refinancing while rates are low, but I want to pay off credit card and auto loan debt first, then save up the closing costs. But, by that time the rates may have gone up. My qualm is rolling the closing costs into the loan. I feel like that is taking a step backward. We could use our tax return to pay the closing costs, but that would set us back in paying off our credit card and auto loan debt. We can write the $3500 we pay for points off on our taxes next year, so that is something to take into consideration. What do you think?

Thanks, Seabee. I must have read that wrong.

Bump for myself. I have an ING account and am not happy with it. I have $1k in savings as a small emergency fund, and I need to save for the 3-6 months of expenses, paying off credit cards, etc. If I don't see it, I won't touch it. But, I would like a little more access to it than the restricted "goal" mentality that Smarty Pig has. If it takes a few days to transfer, that's fine, but in the even that I lose my job, I need to be able to access the money saved if I'm not at my goal.

Definitely people watching. Do you have a camera? Take pics. Dollar movie theatre.

Definitely dining out. Clothing. Gadgets.