Should we refinance our mortgage just bought the house 6 months ago please read ?

Doreatha
We bought our house in October and made the 1st payment in November 2007. Our interest rate is 6.25% through Wells Fargo. Our house appraised out at 180, 000 and we financed 161, 000. We had thought about refinancing to try and get rid of PMI since we have a good bit of equity in the house. I had also wanted to try and go through a local hometown bank so that I could deal with someone face to face when needed. Im just not sure if it would be a good time to refinance with the rates now or what. I also had thought about refinancing to pay off a few credit cards.

Duane
Never refinance to pay off credit cards...that's dumb...get a second job to do that...Check your local bank and see what you can do...wont...hurt...

Chasity
Never refi to pay off other debts. If you have a fixed 30 year mortgage, imagine paying for that debt for the next 30 years with interest! The items that you aquired the debt with will be long gone but you'll still be paying on it. You should pay off the debt aggressively and then pay extra on your mortgage principal to get your equity over 20%. After that you can get rid of the PMI and you'll have a better credit rating to get the best rate possible. Good luck :)

Brandee
dont refi! you'll still actually be paying that c.c. debt but for 30 years and thousands of $ interest. rent one or 2 of the rooms to someone you know (work with or got to church with) rarely trusta stranger unless its an elderly person. 75$ a week would be reasonable and $300-600 monthlywill pay down those debts quick.

Dorathy
If you have a fixed rate loan, I wouldn't be in a hurry to refinance. Just how much equity do you need to get rid of the PMI? If its 20%, you're not there yet.

Jacinta
To answer the question about PMI you MUST have that on your loan if the loan to value ratio is above 80% meaning if you have a house worth 100, 000 you cannot owe more than 80, 000. also all 30 year FHA loans will have PMI.There are a few options for you right now but in general you will not save a huge amount of money. i am a Loan Officer and right now the best rate i could possibly get you would be about 5.875 in an FHA loan, and you will have PMI any way since your loan to value is over 80%.Paying off credit cards with a mortgage is a good idea, but only if you have alot of credit card debt. for example if you only have about 4k in credit card debt i would suggest not doing the loan if your main goal is to pay off the debt. if you had around 10-15k in credit card debt then it would be worth it because you would be paying much lower interest on the same money.If you or anyone else have questions i am willing to help

Jared
DON'T! First, the PMI is required until you have 20 percent equity. If you had put twenty percent down there would be no PMI. Second, Refinancing means that you have to pay all those closing costs again. Never add closing costs to your loan. Third. Refinance to pay off a few credit cards. Another "Never". Now lets work backwords. Never have more than one credit card. What can't you buy with a Visa? Paying off a credit card with your mortgage means that you will be paying on that debt 30 years from now. If you total balances are extremely high, you might consider a second trust. Do all that you can to just pay off your house. Only consider a refinance if the new interest rate is 1.5 percent lower. Bottom line - Don't :-)

Lanita
Most banks require PMI when you have less than 20% equity. on $180, 000, that would be $36, 000. It looks like you only have $19, 000. So unless you can make up the difference in cash, you would probably still have PMI. There are other ways to get rid of PMI with somewhat shady loans, but in the end the PMI is ther better option. If you refinance the house to pay off credit card debt, what you are doing is turning short-term debt into long term debt. If you do an amortization schedule to compare your options, you'll find out that refinancing will cost you more in the long run. One thing to consider is a Home Equity Line of Credit, or a HELOC. HELOCs tend to be higher interest rates than a home loan, but MUCH lower than a credit card.