Mortgage Refinansing Help

Mortgage Refinancing Help: Texas

“It is feasible to go for a refinance when you have built up at least 10% equity in your home (For Fannie Mae owned mortgages, the value is 5%). It is also possible for you to choose the option if your equity is less than 5%, but you may have to pay a certain amount of cash in order to make up for the difference in equity. ”

Mortgage Refinancing Help : Business: Financial Services: Banking Services: Credit Unions: Regional: United States : Texas (45)

Get your interest rate and closing costs in writing as soon as you decide on a lender to work with. Get your lender to give you a commitment in advance of all of the costs that will be involved with your loan. Find out if the refinance loan you are getting has a pre-payment penalty as well. Sometimes lenders will leave out important information like this, if they think it might scare you away from refinancing with them.

See also:

Shell Federal Credit Union »
Deer Park. Membership is open to Shell employees.

MemberSource Credit Union »
Houston. Membership is open to select employer groups and their families.

OmniAmerican Federal Credit Union »
Forth Worth. Membership is open to over 1,500 select employer groups. Lists services, locations and rates.

Neighborhood Credit Union »
Dallas.

First Abilene Federal Credit Union »
Abilene. Membership open to those who live, work, worship, or attend school in Taylor, Jones, Callahan, Nolan, Runnels, or Eastland Counties. Services, history, contact information, rates.

Government Employees FCU »
Austin. Membership is open to employees of the United States Government living or working in Travis County or the surrounding counties which border on Travis County.

Dallas Teachers Credit Union »
Dallas. Membership is open to persons associated with a school, if living or working in the community areas or if employer or organization is one of the credit union's select employee groups.

University Federal Credit Union »
Austin. Membership is open to University of Texas students or members of the Wheatsville Coop.

El Paso Employees Federal Credit Union »
El Paso. Membership is open to employees in El Paso.

South Texas Area Resources Credit Union »
Corpus Christi. Field of membership includes the employees and their families of 91 Corpus Christi area companies.

Education Credit Union »
Amarillo. Membership is open to all employees and retired employees of all public, private, or parochial schools, colleges, or universities within the geographic bounds of Potter, Randall, Armstrong, Carson, Donley and Oldham counties.

CICOST Federal Credit Union »
Sherman. Membership is open to employees of select employer groups.

Austin Federal Credit Union »
Membership is open to local residents.

Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union »
San Antonio. Membership includes military, civil service and select employee groups.

Cy-Fair Federal Credit Union »
Houston. Membership is open to all employees of the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District.

Security Service Federal Credit Union »
San Antonio. Serves select groups in Texas and Colorado. Services include online banking and bill pay.

Texans Credit Union »
Membership is open to employees of participating companies and their family members.

Halliburton Employees' Federal Credit Union »
Houston. Membership is open to Halliburton employees.

People's Trust Federal Credit Union »
Houston. Membership is open to all Houston residents. Includes member benefits, loan rates, and on-line applications.

Texas Bay Area Credit Union »
Pasadena. Membership is open to select employer groups.

People's Federal Credit Union »
Amarillo. Membership is open to select employer groups and organizations.

Greater Texas FCU »
Austin. Membership is open to select employer groups and organizations.

Denton Area Teachers Credit Union »
Dallas. Membership is open to select employer groups and organizations in North Texas.

Employees Credit Union »
Dallas. Serves many select employee groups. Current rates, a look at the range of services offered, quarterly newsletter (in PDF), online access.

Members Choice Credit Union »
Houston. Membership is open to select employer groups and their families.

Credit Union of Texas »
Offers loans, savings and checking accounts, financial advice. Features products and services, branch locations, FAQs, newsletter.

Fort Worth Telco Credit Union »
Arlington. Membership is open to employees of Southwestern Bell, AT&T, all other telecommunication companies, and Texas utilities.

First Community Credit Union »
Houston. Serving select employer groups in the Houston area.

Austin Telco Federal Credit Union »
Austin. Membership is open to anyone in Austin's five county metro area.

San Antonio Federal Credit Union »
San Antonio. Serving employees and residents in San Antonio communities.

Walker County Federal Credit Union »
Membership is open to all persons who live or work in Walker County.

Beaumont Area Educators Federal Credit Union »
Beaumont. Membership is open to educators working in the Beaumont area.

Concho Educators Federal Credit Union »
San Angelo. Serves faculty, staff, and students of Angelo State; educators in several public school systems; select employee groups in San Angelo. Locations, current rates, who can join, online access to accounts.

Bluebonnet Federal Credit Union »
Houston. Membership is open to employees of Gulf Oil Company.

Community Credit Union »
Headquarters in Plano, with locations in 4 other north Texas cities. Membership is open to residents of the northern Metroplex.

InvesTex Credit Union »
Houston. Membership is open to most people living and/or working within the North Harris Montgomery Community College area.

Chemcel Employee's Federal Credit Union »
Dallas. Membership is open to the employees of Hoechst - Celanese in Dallas, Houston, Corpus Christi, and Bishop, Texas.

Texas Credit Union League »
State trade association serving over 750 credit unions.

Access Credit Union »
Amarillo. Membership is open to select employer groups in Amarillo.

Gulf Coast Educators Federal Credit Union »
Pasadena. Membership is open to employees, retirees and board of trustees of listed participating organizations on website.

Amoco Federal Credit Union »
Texas City. Membership is open to employees of Amoco and their families.

Fort Worth Community Credit Union »
Membership open to anyone who lives, works, or attends school in Tarrant County, Texas.

Associated Credit Union »
DeerPark. Open to employees or members of participating fields of membership and their family members.

Capitol Credit Union »
Austin. Membership includes employees of selected Texas state agencies, attorneys licensed by the State Bar of Texas and their staff, employees of the Southern Union Company, members of the Texas Optometric Association and their employees.

Border Federal Credit Union »
Del Rio and Eagle Pass. Membership open to anyone who lives or works in Val Verde, Kinney, or Maverick Counties. Information about services offered and branch hours of operations.

If you are planning to stay in your home for several years, then you can save money by paying points for lower interest rates. You pay up front fees to ensure you have lower interest payments over the course of your loan. Remember, this only works if you keep your mortgage for several months.

Many companies in this industry will do what ever they can to get away with charging you as much as they possibly can. Some of the ways they do this is not disclosing all the third party fees involved in a loan such as title insurance, appraisals, pre-paid tax and insurance escrows etc. It is important that you ask the loan officer you're speaking with about third party fees. If you don't they may not tell you and give you a good faith estimate that sounds fair, but at closing you'll find out that you have to pay a couple of thousand dollars more in fees you were unaware of. A good loan officer at a reputable company should have no problem disclosing all fees that pertain to your loan and should also make sure you understand what the fees are for.

It's better to follow the 2% Rule which suggests that you can enjoy the benefits of a home refinance if your mortgage refinance rate is 2% lower than that on your current loan. The interest savings will help you recoup the costs you've paid for the new loan provided you stay in the property for a certain period of time (break-even period). However, there are no-cost as well as low-cost refinance loans wherein the costs are included into the loan. But you can expect comparatively higher rates on such loans. Moreover, these loans are limited when the market is in a credit crunch.

Many people with poor credit history look to take out loans from friends and family. While this may be a fairly good short term solution, it might not be the smartest of long term business moves. What you need to do is refinance your mortgage and lower your payment. The best thing you can do for yourself is to shop around. I'd be willing to bet that some banks will give you a better deal on a mortgage refinancing than you think they would. Find out who's got the best rate to get the best deal on your loan. This might take a little legwork, but it could pay off. Finding that right bank to give you the right deal on your refinancing will be worth the effort.