If you own a home, you may apply for a refinance debt consolidation loan or I call it the (RDC Loan). This type of loan will allow you to have only one payment every month. This should give you a little relief and free up some cash for you. You may also be more attentive in paying your refinance debt consolidation loan when you know that your house is on the line if you miss on your payments. This can be either a pro or con, just depends on how you view things. Many people today are living from paycheck to paycheck. Most of them do not even notice where the money they earn goes a day after their paycheck is received. Many of them are in deep financial difficulty and are already in the threshold of filing for bankruptcy. Once you take advantage of the refinance debt consolidation loan, it may help avoid filing for bankruptcy, get you out of debt & help to increase your credit score. You may need this type of refinance when you feel that your monthly obligation becomes difficult to manage. It may be able to help you avoid being subject to late payments charges and high interest rates. This is also necessary when you start to notice that even after making your monthly payments your balance still remains the same. Pros: Reduces Monthly Payments Tax Deductible Interest (ask a tax consultant) One Monthly Payment vs. Many One Interest Rate vs. Many Cons: Refinancing Costs Starting Your Mortgage Over You may get a higher rate Fee's Breakdown Title Fees Usually 1% of the loan amount. Lender Fees Usually $800 to $1,500 Broker Fees $500 to 2% depending on how much they choose to charge. A fee to have your property re-appraised, if necessary Not including Escrow account in the scenario to make things less complicated These fees normally should add up to about 3% of your loan amount, so on a $80,000 loan you should approximately pay $2,400, which can be rolled into the loan. Now you have one payment but your loan is starting all over and you just paid $2,400 in fees. Lets put the pros and cons to a test to see which is better: In this scenario I will work with a Mortgage Balance of $50,000 with 20 Years to go on a 30 year mortgage. (It takes about 21 years to payoff the first half of your mortgage and 7 for the second half) Here we go: Home Value $100,000
New Home Mortgage Balance $80,000 Payoff Current Mortgage Balance: $50,000 Closing Costs: $2,400 or 3% Cash Back $27,600 to payoff debt and/or invest Current Payments: Car Payment $450 Balance $10,000 Credit Cards $300 Balance $10,000 Bank Loan $250 Balance $5,000 Current Mortgage $650 Balance $50,000 Total = $1650 a month New Loan Terms: Refinance Loan for $80,000 7.0% 30 Year Term New Payment of $532.00 New Payment Breakdown Interest: $466 Principal: $66.00 This is a $1,118.00 in monthly savings Bad part about this process, the client is starting all over with their mortgage. Currently the client pays $1,650 in total monthly bills. This client is making their current payments. Lets see what happens if they pay $1000 a month instead of the $532. The client is still saving $665 a month by doing this. By making a $1,000 payment each month this client would have an additional $468 going directly to the principal each month. By doing this, will result in the loan being paid off in 109 months or 9 years. In this scenario the customer still saves $650 a month, has only one monthly payment and will pay their mortgage off faster than they currently are now. As you can see this is by far the best choice. Tip: You should not refinance more than 80% of what your house is worth. Example: If your house is valued @ $100,000 the max loan amount should be $80,000 or 80% of the value of your home. This way if you have to sell your home you still have 20% Equity available. Some states limit your max cash-out refinance. Here are some other alternatives but not as good as this above suggestion in my opinion & why I think you should not do the following: Home Equity Loans The IRS only recognizes home-equity loans up to $100,000; you can't deduct the interest paid on principal above that figure. These are usually ARM (Adjustable Rate Mortgages) products tied to Prime and can go as high as 18%. Credit Counseling? Well watch out for companies who: * charge high up-front or monthly fees for enrolling in credit counseling or a DMP. * pressure you to make "voluntary contributions," another name for fees. * won' t send you free information about the services they provide without requiring you to provide personal financial information, such as credit card account numbers, and balances. * try to enroll you in a DMP without spending time reviewing your financial situation. * offer to enroll you in a DMP without teaching you budgeting and money management skills. * demand that you make payments into a DMP before your creditors have accepted you into the DMP=Debt Management Plans If your credit is bad there is no way they can fix it for you. By the time they are done with your payment plan 7 years would have gone by and your collections would have fallen off by then. |
