Thursday, March 25, 2010

Refinancing Your Mortgage to Save Money

Refinancing Your Mortgage to Save Money
By Addison Holmes

There are different reasons that people decide to refinance their mortgage loan. Most people that want to refinance their home loan got their original mortgage loan when interest rates were high and they would like to take advantage of the current lower rates thinking that by doing this they will be saving money. This may not always be the case as there are many other factors involved.

It is true that refinancing your loan may get you a lower rate if the rates have decreased since your took our your current mortgage. Assuming that the interest rate is all that changes, your monthly payments will go down.

When you refinance your mortgage loan there are other things to consider such as how long do you plan to stay in your home, how much will the new loan cost, will you be paying less each month?

You may also lengthen the term of your loan which is the length of time you spend paying off your loan. This is another alternative to refinancing your mortgage loan. Each monthly payment will be smaller since the payments will be spread over a longer time period.

There is a disadvantage to lengthening your loan and that is you may end up paying more interest overall since you will be repaying the mortgage principal much more slowly.

Another option is to shortening your loan term which will reduce your total amount of interest paid. Each of your payments will reduce the balance by a bigger amount which means there are fewer monthly payments required to repay your loan.

Your interest charges will decrease as your balance decrease faster. There is an advantage to this process because a shorter loan term assists you in building equity in your home faster besides reducing your interest costs. Also, refinancing can help you avoid higher payments if you are potentially facing a rate increase.

If the current interest rate has decreased it might be the time to refinance your mortgage loan changing to a fixed-rate mortgage. Then these lower interest rates will never change when the rates begin to move upward again.

Also, if you currently have an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) and you are thinking of moving within a few years you might want to replace your current loan with a new ARM. As an ARM usually begins with a lower interest rate and can stay that way from three months to ten years, depending on your specific mortgage, you can choose a time period on your new ARM that will not adjust until after you plan on moving.

Addison Holmes is really into everything about homes, mortgages, loans, and the statistics that come along with them.

He wants to show and inform everyone of his wide array of information to help people get the best possible deals, rates, tips, and more. If you are looking for more info, visit best remortgages or top remortgage services to find everything else you need to know about these topics.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Addison_Holmes

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