Refinancing for Suckers
Dec 6th, 2006 by Alex
In Maryland the rough details of your home mortgage are considered public information. As a result I receive quite a few refinancing offers in the mail. This is in addition to the endless barrage of credit card offers I still receive. I’ve received half a dozen “mortgage opportunity” offers this week, but the one from Provident Mortgage takes the cake. For those fortunate enough not to receive these things, here’s some enlightenment.
Congratulations! We have reviewed your original mortgage loan in the amount of [A]. Your property, location at [B], qualifies for a “Low Cost Refinance.” You now have the opportunity to refinance to a fixed minimum payment that is at or below [C]%, and skip your mortgage payment for 30-60 day!Your new principal and interest payment could be [D].
Naturally, A and B are correct. Thanks to the Senator that decided that such information should be public. C is a larger than my current interest rate and D is larger than my current payment. You’d expect those values to be better than my current ones. But then again, we aren’t dealing with rocket scientists. Both lending agents listed in the letter use their personal email accounts (from aol.com and verizon.net).
“We’ve done our homework,” says the offer letter. Idiots.
