Should You Refinance That Mortgage?

Many people are dropping everything to refinance their house since Mortgage rates have dropped again. The question is, should everyone jump on that bandwagon? Here are some things to think about…

You usually have to pay for an appraisal when you refinance. A lot of people are finding that when the appraisal comes back, their house has lost so much value that they don’t have enough equity to refinance. They then end up being out the cost of the appraisal which can range anywhere from $150-$400.

If you are wanting to refinance from a 30 year to a 15 year, remember the depending how many years you have been paying on that mortgage, moving to a 15 year most likely will require a higher monthly payment. My advice would be to keep the current mortgage, but just over pay it to effectively make it a 15 year. That way if you ever come across financial issues, you can revert back to the regular (lower) payment without being on the hook to the bank for a higher amount. Sure it is no longer going to get paid in 15 years, but there is that piece of financial security that is priceless.

As always, verify closing costs first and line that up with the number of years you think you are going to stay in the home. For example if closing costs are $6000 and you only plan on being there 5 more years, well that $6000 closing costs equate to $100 per month plus compounded interest over those 5 years, if your new payment after the refinance is not $100 less than your previous payment, there is no reason to finance since it won’t benefit you.

I always use a mortgage broker. I have used the same guy since I have bought my first home back in 1995. I use him since I always have a few things that I want when I refinance. My requirements are: No Escrow, No Prepayment Penalty.  When he does his rate search, he always finds me a lender at the lowest advertised rate with this conditions. He gets paid by the lender so I pay him nothing more than I would if I found the bank myself. I highly recommend you ask around for a reputable broker to help you in your search. In most cases states have increased laws to make sure they your interests are protected when using a broker.

These are just some things to think about before refinancing. Sure the lure or 4% mortgage rates is enticing, but you should always do your research to make sure that refianncing doesn’t cost you more that your current mortgage.

Citi Forward Card Promo – $200 Restaurant.com Gift Certificate

EDIT: This promotion has expired and is no longer available

There is a new Citi Forward promotionwhere you will get a $200 Restaurant.com gift certificate after you make $100 in purchases with the card by September 15th, 2010.

It’s as simple as that, all you have to do is apply for the card and make $100 in purchases by 9/15/2010. You will receive the gift certificate details by mail 6-8 weeks after you have met the minimum purchase requirement. You then can redeem the gift certificate at restaurant.com.

If you have never bought anything from restaurant.com, they offer discounted dining certificates to restaurants all over the country. In most cases you can find one of your favorites there and get a great deal off of the bill using their service.

The Citi Forward card is a rewards card. You will earn 5x ThankYou® Points for every $1 spent at restaurants, on books, movies and music. You also get 1 reward point for every $1 you spend on all other purchases. Even better is that you can earn up to 2,500 when you sign up for Paperless Statements.

The Citi Forward comes with 0% Intro APR on Balance Transfers for 12 months and 0% Intro APR on Purchases for 7 months. After that, the APR will be 12.99%-19.99%. This APR will vary with the market based on the Prime Rate. Both the rate and duration of this offer will be based on your creditworthiness.

There is no annual fee for this card.

See the Citi Forward Promo page for the terms and conditions of the card.

NCUA and FDIC Insurance Limits Now At $250,000

The limits on account balances that are insured have now been permanently set to $250,000. The limits were increased back in 2008 as a temporary measure due to the high bank failure rate. There was another temporary extension that was to put it to expire in 2013, but with the bill signed by congress yesterday, the insurance limits per account will stay at $250,000. So if you had a CD over $100,000 that was to mature after 2013, you no longer need to worry!

Here is the FDIC News Article if you care to read the details.

I imagine that most of you, including myself, didn’t have an issue with the $100,000 limit much less the increased $250,000 limit. But now I can dream that if I win $1,000,000 in the lottery, I only need to spread it across 4 different banks rather than 10. Here’s to still dreaming!!!!

Hot Brokerage Promos

Since the market has turned around a bit many of the online brokerage sites are offering promos to get you to open an account. Now is not a bad time to start investing since the market is still of its highs from last year but seems to be rebounding a bit. Sure we still may be in for a rocky ride, but if you are investing in the long term, now is the perfect time to get going. If you have some extra money to invest I suggest you look at one of these promos prior to signing up with anyone.

Here are a few of the current ones going on:

• Tradeking Promo – Get $50 when opening a new Tradeking account (see post for more details)
• ETrade IRA Promo – Open an ETrade IRA and get 100 free trades. (See post for more details)
• Zecco Promo – Zecco brokerage gives you Get 10 free stock trades every month if you $25,000 balance or make 25 paid trades each month. Otherwise the commission is only $4.50 / trade which is one of the lowest out there. (See more details here
• OptionsXpress Promo – OptionsXpress is giving away $100 when you open a new account with them. (See post for more details)
• Firstrade Promo – Firstrade is giving away 5 free trade when you open a new account. (See post for more details)

Free Amazon Prime For Students

Amazon is offering their Amazon Prime Shipping service free to students for one year. For those of you unaware of what Amazon Prime is, it allows Unlimited FREE Two-Day shipping on items purchased from Amazon. There is no minimum order size. You can also upgrade to overnight shipping for $3.99 / item. This usually costs $79 a year and you can cancel it at any time if you are unsatisfied.

A few things to note, you must have an email address ending in “.edu” to qualify. Those email address are usually only given out to students, so one is required for this offer. Also, not all items qualify for the free 2 day shipping. I currently have the Amazon Prime service and in my experience usually the item needs to be sold my Amazon for it to qulify. Each item will tell you whether or not it is eligible for the Amazon Prime service. Note in the screenshot below:

This is a pretty good deal if you order a lot from amazon as it will increase your shipping speed, since in most cases the current free shipping can take up to 5 days to get to you. If you are interested in signing up, check out the details at the Amazon Prime For Students page.

PNC $125 Bonus For New Checking Account

PNC Bank has a new checking account promo running where you can get a $100 bonus when you open a new checking account. You can then get another $25 bonus when signing up for online banking. This would bring it up to a total of $125 in bonuses for opening the account.

To qualify you need to open a new account using their online application by 7/24/2010. You then need to set up a direct deposit of at least $400 as well as make 10 debit card purchases to qualify for the $100 bonus. To get the $25 bonus you must make 5 online bill payments using the online banking. Both of these need to be completed within 60 days of the account opening to qualify.

The PNC Free checking account qualifies as a checking account that can be opened to get this bonus. The PNC Free Checking account has no monthly maintenance fees or minimum balance requirements. A unique feature of this account is that if you maintain a $2000 average monthly balance, they will reimburse you any foreign ATM fees. Most free checking accounts don’t offer a feature like this. You also receive fee online banking and bill pay

This bonus is only avaialbe to new customers, you cannot be a recently converted National City customer as well. The $125 in bonus will be deposited to your account within 60 days of the above conditions being met. They do spell out what is considered as a direct deposit. Here is the text from the offer:

A “Qualifying Direct Deposit” is defined as a recurring direct deposit of a paycheck, pension, social security or other regular monthly payment electronically deposited into a Free, Performance, Performance Select Checking account, or the Spend account for Virtual Wallet (each an “Eligible Account”) on a recurring month-to-month basis. The amount of each recurring Direct Deposit must be at least $400. The recurring Direct Deposits must be made by an employer or an outside agency

See the PNC Promo Page for more details

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