Rate Refinance

Ouch. This veteran is in financial trouble. I tell everyone I can to run, don't walk, away from any lender telling you to go with an ARM. Unforunately he's already in the boat that's taking on water. Being the success story in his family doesn't help either. I didn't hear of any significant consumer debt after he wisely dumped his expensive consumer items, so unless he can swing a fixed rate refinance with a lower payment I don't see a consolidation loan helping much. If it were a year or two ago I'd say sell the house, hopefully they're not upside down in it.Sounds like a second job is the way to get you over the hump. Rebuild that credit and refinance into something with managable payments or sell down to something more affordable. And yes Mr. Fleming, start now and never stop living within your means.I think the moral of the story for this story, is when the government gives out the ever bigger golden egg to convince young people to enlist, that they should invest that money and use it wisely instead of buying the new car or stereo, etc.

Great places secures £315m deal

THE Great Places Housing Group has clinched a £315m refinancing deal, after a marathon 15 months. The Didsbury-based social housing group, a not-for-profit organisation, secured the funding from four leading banks, Abbey, Barclays, Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets and Royal Bank of Scotland. RBS has lent £75m, the other three £80m. Great Places, which owns or manages more than 14,000 properties in Manchester, Lancashire and Yorkshire, will refinance more than £100m of debt as a result of the deal, allowing it to save `several hundred thousand pounds' a year in interest payments. Finance director Phil Elvy said: "It has been a marathon, but we're delighted to have got there. We were lucky we began the process when we did, because the debt market is not as healthy now by any means. "Having said that, none of the banks changed their minds when the crunch hit home." What do you think? Have your say.

Refinancing: Don't Waste Time Wondering, Just Do It

If you're not changing the term of your loan ... even dropping your rate by an eighth makes sense because you did not have to change anything to get a loan," says Bob Walters, chief economist for Quicken Loans. "It always pays to get a lower rate."

Say the current balance of your 6.5%, 30-year fixed mortgage is $250,000 and you are making monthly payments of $1,580. If you refinance into a loan of the same size that's one percentage point lower, 5.5%, you've dropped your monthly payments by about $160 to $1,420. But let's say you want to take out extra cash to pay off $20,000 in credit card debt: You'll need a new loan of $270,000. And even with that higher amount, your monthly payments are still reduced about $50 from your current payments to $1,533 a month.

To determine how your monthly mortgage payments will differ under a new loan, use a mortgage-refinance calculator to determine the savings you might receive.