Adjustable Mortgage
by Scott Bilker |
Dear Scott,
Our credit isn't too good. My husband had open heart surgery about a
year ago and lost three months of work. We have some 30-60 days
late. How do we get our credit back into order. Also our home is
100% financed. We have a adjustable rate on our mortgage. How do
they decide if the rate goes up or down. How is it calculated and
when? Every quarter? Thanks for your time.
--Nellie
Answer
Nellie,
Glad to hear that your husband is doing well after heart surgery.
The best way to start getting your credit back in order is to
contact the banks and let them now what's going on. Ask them to make
payment arrangements that you can handle, also ask them if they can
remove those late payment comments from your credit report.
The basic ARM (adjustable rate mortgage) adjusts the interest once a
year, three years, or five years. However, some may have special
conditions so you'll need to look at your mortgage agreement to know
the exact terms. Interest rates can be based on a variety of
interest indexes, so again, you'll need to look at your specific
mortgage but that information should be easily found in the original
paperwork.
As far as saving money on the mortgage goes, it always seems that
banks are much quicker to raise rates than to lower them. Right now
is a great time to start looking into refinancing that mortgage to a
lower fixed rate. That's because many financial experts believe that
rates will decline further this month. Try applying for the
refinance by click on http://www.debtsmart.com/loan
Good luck and please let me know what happens.
Scott
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