Refinancing Online

I used an online refinancing service last summer. And I'm sure glad I did. With interest rates headed upward, I moved at just the right moment to lock in a refinancing rate that will save tens of thousands of dollars in the long run. Initially, I was quite wary of refinancing online. So I took the time to research the best companies in that space.

When I say wary, it's wary for good reason. All you need to do is take a look in your overflowing inbox to see all of the unsolicited junk mail from shady mortgage application mill operations. It's hard to imagine that folks fall for those lame emails that pretend to be what they're not. Needless to say, a click (on the delete button) was the most effort I spent on those canned lunch meat messages.

After a good bit of research, I decided to refinance with Quicken Loans. I have to admit that the name recognition factor had something to do with the decision. It was the Quicken logo that got me to the website in the first place.

I landed there initially, as I recall, after clicking on a link from the front door of Yahoo. My mind put Yahoo & Quicken together as being instantly familiar. Being that I've used Quicken's TurboTax for ages, I felt something of a relationship of trust. "If I can trust my tax return to these folks," I thought, "I can trust them with refinancing my mortgage." Score one for branding.

I checked out the various refinancing options, playing with the terms and rates. Like most good refinancing websites, Quicken Loans provides mortgage calculators to do your homework. As we'd been in our home for ten years, we had a great deal of flexibility in the options (not to mention a good bit of bills to clear up and things to fix).

In order to more fully understand the refinancing process, I made a number of phone inquiries. I took the plunge only after I felt completely comfortable with both the firm and the process. I felt fortunate to have hooked up with an excellent loan consultant. Kitty kept things moving along and answered every question along the way. The refinancing flew through in a month and a half. And we never even had to leave the house. We closed the refinancing on our kitchen table! :)

If you're thinking about refinancing or a home equity loan, you'd do well to use all of the resources that the Internet has to offer. Whether you decide to refinance online or at your local bank, you can do all the research on your own ... when you walk in the door (be it virtual or not) you'll walk in as an educated consumer.