Closing costs can be expensive. If you plan on refinancing your home to save money, be sure to take into consideration how much the closing costs on the new loan will cost you.
Ask the lender or broker for a comparison of the up-front costs, principal, rate, and payments with and without this rate trade-off.
Don't rely on published rates. "No one's going to advertise their worst product," says Keith T. Gumbinger of HSH Associates, a Butler, NJ, firm that tracks mortgage rates. "They advertise the best possible rate, which probably gets offered to only the top 10 percent of applicants."
If there is a big difference between the initial interest rate and the APR listed in the ad, it may mean that there are high fees associated with the loan.