Bank of America offers a variety of standard mortgage products and a few creative options too, as well as a heavily advertised teaser mortgage called “No Fee Mortgage Plus”, which is said to come with no application fee, no closing fee, no private mortgage insurance, and a close-on-time guarantee: http://www.bankofamerica.com/loansandhomes/index.cfm?template=lc_mortgage

The BOA Mortgage website offers lots of calculators and interactive tools, as well as a smiling brunette Bank of America lady wearing red lipstick and dressed in a dark blue suit. Her streaming video image keeps popping up unexpectedly to wink at you or attempt to explain something you didn’t really care about, or otherwise annoy and distract you from whatever information you are seeking, and then not-so-gently guide you into providing information about yourself, or, better yet, into applying for a mortgage. Easy preapproval! Quick! Now! Really!

You can talk to a Bank of America Mortgage specialist online or by email or by phone, at any time during your visit, the sooner the better. Seriously, they really, really want to talk to you.  What they don’t appear to want to do is disclose a whole lot of nitty-gritty information over the internet, no matter how badly you’d like to look at it without a BOA salesperson peering over your shoulder. If you are the kind of person who is annoyed by that approach, Bank of America Mortgage might not be the mortgage company for you.

That word of warning aside, Bank of America Mortgage does offer a decent, standard line of home mortgage products, refinancing options, and home equity loans and lines of credit. Fixed rate mortgages are available for terms of 15, 30 or 40 years. ARMs are offered with low initial fixed rate periods of 1, 3, 5, 7, or ten years, followed by adjustable rates for the rest of the mortgage term.

A 10/20 interest-only mortgage is offered that resets to a 20 year fixed rate after an initial ten year interest-only period. Another interest-only option gives the buyer five years of paying only interest at the beginning of the mortgage, followed by a 25 year ARM.

If you are curious about the No Fee Mortgage Plus that comes with no application fee and no closing fee, it is worth poking around the site a bit to get more detailed information. On the Frequently Asked Questions page, we learn that third party fees (as separate from an application fee and a closing fee) are “…fees charged for services rendered by parties other than the borrower or the lender. Such fees may include appraisal, credit report, title and flood certifications.”

In other words, even without an application and/or a closing fee, plenty of fees are still left that must be and will be charged at closing on any and every mortgage. Not all borrowers realize this, and Bank of America Mortgage does not make a big deal out of making sure visitors to the website understand it either.

As to guaranteed on-time closing, that depends on what exactly you mean by “on time.” Again, the FAQs page informs us that “…the 60-day estimate is calculated to cover tasks you need to do, tasks we need to do, and tasks that third parties need to do. Examples of the latter include property valuation and title search. During times of high application volume, such as when rates are low, these tasks can take more time.”

Those rascally third parties! …Always making it hard on consumers and the nice people at Bank of America.

Despite all these complaints and irritations, it’s worth remembering that Bank of America Mortgage is big, really, really big, so big that Bank of America was recently able to swallow battered, ailing giant Countrywide Home Loans whole without so much as a burp in BOA profits. BOA will be there tomorrow and the day after that, and the day after that too. Sometimes that can be a good thing.

Auto loan calculators allow you to estimate your monthly payment depending on the cost of the car, your down payment, the loan term, and the interest rates. Lots of websites have great calculators available, and it’s not a bad idea to play around with them a bit and do some research before you ever start shopping, just so you have an idea of what you can afford and what you can’t.

Bankrate.com is a terrific website with a great auto loan calculator and lots of solid basic information on what to look for when shopping for a car and financing for the car. You can check out the bankrate.com calculator at http://www.bankrate.com/brm/auto-loan-calculator.asp.

One especially nice feature of the bankrate.com auto loan calculator is that it allows you to figure out how much time and money making extra payments on your auto loan will save over the life of the loan. This can be a real eye-opener. For example, if you borrow $15,000 for 48 months on a new car at 10% interest, your monthly payment will be $380.44. If you add $40 extra to your monthly payment you will pay the loan off three months early and save yourself $385 in interest over the life of the loan.

In general, the shorter the term of your auto loan, the better the interest rate and the lower the cost of borrowing. If you finance the same $15,000 car for 36 months at 8% your monthly payment would be $470.05, but over the life of the loan you would save yourself a staggering $1341 in interest.

Another useful auto loan calculator at cars.com lets you plug in the cost of the new car, the trade in value of your old car, your down payment, the taxes, and the interest and loan term to get your payment. On the same $15,000 car, if you put $1000 down and trade in your old vehicle for $4000, assuming sales tax at 5% or $750, you end up with a monthly payment on a three-year 8% loan of $336.86, shaving almost $150 per month off your payment with nothing down and no trade-in.

Edmunds.com is a great website for checking out the auto loan calculator, because not only can you plug in all the features available at the other sites, you can also find out the fair trade-in value on your old car.

MSN Money lets you find out the current auto loan rates in your specific area by zip code and then get an estimate based on that and the cost of the car you want to buy.

MSN Money’s auto loan site also shows you the current national average for auto loans at low, average, and high costs. You can also apply for an auto loan from any of the sponsors of the site directly from the calculator page. These features are available at the MSN site at http://moneycentral.msn.com/loan/loan.aspx?iType=3&pkw=auto_loan_calculators&vendor=google&refcd=go210919s_auto_loan_calculators&tsacr=go558940140.

Yahoo lets you compare lease and loan options and the cost of each by providing three different auto loan calculators at http://autos.yahoo.com/finance/loan-calc/.  As with a number of auto loan calculator sites, you can also find the value of the car you are buying and the car you want to trade in, and apply directly for a loan right from the calculator page.

When calculating the cost of an auto loan, most people only care about the monthly payment. If you are not prepared before you shop, the car salespeople will also focus on the monthly payment. They do this in order to sell you the most expensive car they possibly can, which is always good for them, but may or may not be good for you, depending on your situation.

Using a variety of auto loan calculators before you shop will enable you to focus on the true cost of the loan. If you finance $15,000 for three years at 10% interest, you will have the same monthly payment as if you finance $23,000 for five years at the same rate, but you will end up paying $3896 more in interest to the bank on the five year loan. Plus, you will be making payments for two additional years.

If you live in the state of Arkansas and you are thinking of buying or refinancing a home, you don’t have to stick with a regional bank or local lender.

In fact, anyone thinking of home ownership or refinancing should do as much research as possible on which lenders are making mortgages in the area and what their rates and their terms are. When looking for Arkansas home loans you can gather much of this information online just by going to some basic financial websites.

For instance, at www.bankrate.com you can click on the mortgage tab, enter the state where you need the mortgage, the term you want, your approximate down payment, and the area within the state where you intend to buy. Bankrate.com will then do a search for the best mortgage rates in that area.

Searching for a $120,000 30-year fixed rate mortgage with a 20% down payment brought up the lenders Countrywide, the Money Store, Bank of America, Quicken Loans, E-Loan, Aim Loan, and Priceline Mortgage. What is especially helpful is the search tool brings up the interest rate, the fees associated with the loan, the monthly payment, the APR, and a direct link to each lender for additional information or prequalification.

When shopping for a loan, it is tempting to go for the lowest monthly payment and ignore everything else, but play around a bit and see which loan saves you the most money over the long run. For example, on the 120,000 30-year loan Aim Loan offers a $691 monthly payment but the fees included in the APR at $1995 are the highest of all the loans listed.

If you could afford to pay $957/moth with Aim Loan you could pay off your home in only 15 years at a lower interest rate and save a ton of money. Pay 1.76% in discount points (about $2100 at closing) and you can buy down the Aim Loan for the 30 year term a rate of only 5.25% and a monthly payment of $663.

Say you decide to go with Aim Loan and buy down the rate to 5.25 so your monthly payment for thirty years will only be $663, but after a few years you get a huge raise and decide you can send in more money each month. You start to send in an extra $150 each month after the first three years. By doing this, you will shave 8 years and eight months off the mortgage and save $35,939 on the amount paid. To play with this calculator, go to:

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/calculators/mortgages/mortgage_payoff_calculator.asp

In short, the more information you gather ahead of time, the more you understand your choices before you even make an application, the better deal and the more house you will get whether you live in Arkansas, New York, or California. Go into your search armed with knowledge, and you have a much better chance of coming out with what you really want at the end.

When considering all the options for financing your higher education, one of the loan products that you might come across is the ACS student loan.

What does “ACS” stand for?  Well, in short it stands for “Affiliated Computer Services.”  This is a company to which a large portion of federally subsidized student loans are outsourced.  This means that they act as the actual lender for many of these loans.  As the GoCollege.com website puts it:

Basically, when you get a direct loan from the government, such as a Stafford Loan, you may very well end up borrowing through ACS, as they are the Department of Education’s primary outsourcing company.

In essence, the term “ACS student loan” is a bit of a misnomer.  These loans are actually guaranteed by the federal government and are administered by ACS.  However, because ACS manages so many loans, many borrowers have come to think of these as ACS loans.

Advantages of the ACS Student Loan

Why seek out an ACS student loan (or, more accurately, a loan administered by ACS)?  There are a number of reasons:

• Ease:  ACS is well known for its high-quality management process and ease of use.  With an ACS student loan, you can access your accounts online and keep track of all your loans in one place.
• Assistance with Loans:  ACS can offer assistance to students in helping them get matched with the right loans, and you can even apply online.

Qualifications for the ACS Student Loan

Whether you can qualify for a loan through the ACS service will depend on a variety of factors, including:

• The type of loan for which you’re applying:  An ACS student loan is basically a student loan offered through any one of several federal government programs, all of which have different qualification criteria.  You must qualify under the federal loan program you are considering, such as the Perkins loan or the Stafford loan.
• The college you plan to attend:  Not all institutions of higher education qualify for all types of student loan programs.  You will need to check with your institution’s financial aid program to figure out which loan might work best for you.
• Who is borrowing:  Loans are available for both students and parents, which may mean that you and your family have some decisions to make.  In some cases, it may make more sense for a student to apply, in other cases, it may make sense for the parents to do so.

The good news is that the ACS service can help you figure out what might work best for you.

Steps for Applying for an ACS Student Loan

To get started, go to the ACS site at https://www.acs-education.com/CS/Jsp/general/home.jsp.  Here you will find step-by-step instructions for filling out the various forms necessary to explore the federal loan application process.

Through the site, you can also gain access to a wide variety of online tools, such as secure processes for making payments to existing loans or submitting deferment  forms.

A college education doesn’t need to be out of reach, especially with some of the student loan options available through ACS and other vendors.

If you are looking for a free copy of your free instant credit report, make sure you are not actually signing up for a service that will cost your money. The website set up by Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion to provide one free report each year to US citizens is www.annualcreditreport.com . Everything else is private enterprise, and if you do not read the small print, you can end up with an unwanted monthly charge to your bank account.

One example is www.freecreditreportsinstantly.com . A quick glance at the site gives the impression that providing some information will give you instant access to your credit reports with all three of the major credit reporting agencies, but if you read the small print carefully, you will see that what you are signing up for is a month service offering a “free” two-week trial. The likelihood that you will notice the services charges on your account after two weeks is small, and that is what they are counting on.

If you don’t watch your checking account carefully, and you have visited a site like this in the past to look at your credit score, take a careful look at your next bank statement and you may well see a charge of $19.95, $29.95, or even more, run using your debit card or routing and account numbers, and sent to a cryptic business name you do not recognize.

It’s hard to know how many people are unwittingly paying these fees every month to organizations that briefly provided them with something they can get for free, just because they don’t read their bank statements and have trouble understanding fine print on websites and in contracts.

You don’t have to just accept it if this has happened to you. Call your bank or credit union right away and let them know you never authorized the charge. They will ask you to sign an affidavit of fraud stating you didn’t realize you had authorized this. Then they will recover the money from the “free” credit reporting website and put the money back in your bank account.

Once you have gotten your money back, report the company to the Federal Trade Commission at www.ftc.gov. Then visit www.annualcreditreport.com and get your actual free credit report copies.

You are entitled to one free report each year from each agency. If you see errors on the report, write them within 30 days about whatever you think is wrong on it, and follow their procedures for disputing the wrongful item. You may or may not be able to remove items you think are incorrect, but even if the item is not removed you can leave a comment about why you consider it to be illegitimate.

Knowing your credit score can help you take charge of your financial life. Most negative items fall off your report after ten years, and not all lenders will hold a negative item against you if all your more recent reports are good. It’s a shame that some online vendors are unscrupulous enough to attempt to trick people into paying for free information, but knowing these websites exist can help you to protect yourself.

Many retirees and vets do not file federal income tax returns, however all retirees and vets are strongly encouraged to file a 2007 tax return.  Filing a 2007 return will allow you to be considered for a federal tax rebate… which is part of Bush’s economic stimulus package.

Earlier this year, the IRS sent eligible seniors a package that included a simplified 1040A tax form, instructions for completing the form and an example of a form that had been completed.  If you still have yours, fill it out and mail it on.  If you trashed it, then head over to irs.gov or your local IRS office today to get another.  The deadline for filing is tomorrow October 15^th.

To be eligible for a rebate, you must have had at least $3,000 of income or had $1 in tax liability in 2007.  Depending on individual circumstances, the rebate is up to $600 for singles and $1,200 for a couple, plus $300 for each dependent child.

Don’t let your tax rebate go unclaimed.  There are a lot of things your can do with the extra cash.

Act like a tourist in your own city

Many people take for granted the little treasures that their city has to offer.  Most locals rarely visit the local tourist attractions.  But there is fun to be had at these sites.  If I had 600 bucks to spare, I’d tour my town for the weekend.

Visit area museums and art galleries.  Take a drive down the scenic road and have lunch at the 60’s style café.  Go to the theatre to watch a musical.  Take a guided walking tour of downtown.  Have dinner at the nationally acclaimed five star restaurant.  Stay the night in a log cabin in the state park.  Have a picnic at the botanical garden.

Do something out of the ordinary.   And fall in love with your city all over again.

Pay down debt

This is practical one.  And actually, this is how I spent my rebate.  There is not much gratification in paying down bills initially… it is like money in, money out.   But eventually, the satisfaction comes when the bill arrives and the balance is zero.  This could have you kissing the mailman and doing cartwheels on the front lawn.

Catch up on your vehicle maintenance

I gotta be honest… sometimes I skimp on the car maintenance.  But in the long run, it hurts me, because I always wind up spending more.  For instance, I know I am supposed to have my tires rotated every 5,000 miles.  But I kept putting it off and before I knew it, I have driven almost 30,000 miles… and never rotated the tires.  Anyway, by that time the front tires had gotten so worn that I was forced to buy a new set.

Check your vehicle’s owners manual for the manufacturer’s recommended maintenance.  I bet you that there is a whole lot more in there than oil changes and tire rotations.  And there is no reason to fret over the cost, because with $1200… you can buy a lot of maintenance.

Invest in a new business

That is how my grandmother chose to spend her rebate.  She makes the sweetest, creamiest praline candy.  So using her new found wealth, she decided to introduce the world to Ms. Febe’s Creamy Pralines.  (yeah, I know, cheap plug)  She purchased $300 worth of ingredients and made several dozen of her famous pralines.  She took them around to local drug stores, fruit stands and gas stations and gave the managers some samples.  They were so taken aback by the sweet, melt-in-your-mouth treats that they purchased the one she had on hand and placed orders for more.  Today, her candies can be found near the checkout register in 7 local stores… and hopefully soon they’ll be at a checkout register near you.  (You’ve gotta to have a dream, right?)

Anyway, vets and retirees don’t forget to file your 2007 tax return.  A federal tax rebate check and a tour guide, lower debt, healthier car or a candy business are waiting for you.

Midland Mortgage is headquartered in Columbia, South Carolina and was founded in 1982 by Mary Beth Dawson-Gillis. Midland Mortgage makes mortgage loans in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia, and offers a wide range of mortgage loan products including commercial loans, new construction loans, home improvement loans, home equity loans and lines of credit, and other creative financing options.

Or, it is located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, with no website and no customer service telephone number. Or, it is part of a real estate firm in Midland, Texas.

If you have a mortgage with Midland, it might be a good idea to take a look at your bill or your original contract and find out if in fact you know who and where Midland Mortgage is.

One case in point is Holden Lewis’s mother, Marjorie Hiersch, who needed to contact her mortgage holder, Midland Mortgage, about a rebate on her property taxes. Since her taxes were escrowed and sent in along with her mortgage payment, she needed them to collect the $800 refund and send it to her in the form of a check. That meant she had to contact Midland Mortgage.

Marjorie Hiersch spent several months being bounced back and forth between the customer service department at an 800 number for Midland Mortgage, and the customer service department of the tax office, and was asked to mail and fax copies of forms showing her tax refund and exemptions to both, but nothing happened. Then her escrowed amount on her mortgage payment increased. Her son called the 800 number for Midland and asked to speak with a supervisor, and was told that was not possible.

The problem was finally solved when Marjorie did an internet search and found a country club that listed the name, phone number, and extension a Midland Mortgage executive. She called it and things started to get done. The whole story, along with tips on how to get past 1-800 customer service firewalls, can be found at:

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/pf/20010404a.asp

Having logged quite a few years as a 1-800 financial customer service representative myself, I would add that it only feels like you get better treatment if you ask fro the rep’s name and extension and write it down. In reality, the reps are told never to escalate calls, to get rid of people in less than three minutes or face consequences, and most customer service reps are gone before well their first year is over.

That’s how stressful the job is, and the companies who do business this way know it and count on it. The company already has your money and/or your loan and/or your insurance policy. They want you to go away; that’s why they have that kind of “customer service” department.

So, what is Midland Mortgage? If you don’t know for sure, and you are shopping for a loan, maybe it’s time to call another lender. Find one with a local office staffed by human beings if you can. And good luck.

The Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, or FCRA, requires all three of the major credit reporting agencies to provide customers who ask for it one free government credit report every 12 months. The three agencies are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Together they have set up a website specifically for customers who want that free annual report at www.annualcreditreport.com .

Many other sites are available that appear to offer the same information, but if you read the small print at these sites you will see that they actually charge for it. Most of the sites charge every month, and most people who fill out the forms at the unofficial sites do not realize they are agreeing to pay a monthly fee for what they receive.

One of the sites that generates lots of publicity is www.freecreditreport.com . This site has a clever and humorous advertising campaign aimed at young people.

The television ads show the misadventures of a musical group of lovable losers who don’t get what they want because they didn’t visit freecreditreport.com. The leader doesn’t get a good car; he works in a seafood restaurant dressed like a pirate; and he lives in the basement of his wife’s parent’s house because he never asked her about her credit before he married her.

The ads are funny, but if you visit the site and actually read the small print (it’s there—in very tiny, hard-to-read blue letters on a darker blue background, to the left of the good-looking smiling blonde holding the bright orange FREE! sign) you will see, right there in blue and blue, the disclaimer that accepting their “free” credit report will cost you $14.95 a month, to be charged directly to your checking account unless you tell them you don’t want it.

You won’t tell them you don’t want it, because it will be months before you notice it on your checking account, and once you do notice it will be another couple of weeks before your bank figures out who did it and gets the money back for you.

Save yourself this drama but visiting the correct site, www.annualcreditreport.com . Knowing what is on your credit report is worthwhile. If you have some negatives, you will know how to avoid getting even more. If you have items on the report that are not yours, you can dispute them by notifying the credit reporting agency within 30 days. If the dispute does not come out to your satisfaction, you can leave your own side of the story right on the report, and lenders will see that. Sometimes it does make a difference.

Another good reason for knowing what is on your credit report is identity theft. Sometimes the first indication that something is wrong is a strange item that turns up on your credit report; something you won’t know is there if you don’t ever look at it. When someone steals your identity, they often start to take out loans in your name on your good credit, and then they default on the loans. Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the US.

Finally, whenever you are offered a “free” service or product online or at a store by someone you have just given your debit or credit card information, decline the offer. Nine times out of ten it isn’t a free item at all. It may be a free trial, it may be “free” with delivery and service charges tacked on; it may be an outright lie. If you say yes, it can be a nightmare getting the charge off of your bank account.

One popular discount chain gives out “free” magazine subscriptions to customers who buy $50 worth of merchandise with a VISA. The “free” magazines are then charged to the card, and when the customer calls the cancellation number, they get a recording that makes it very, very difficult to tell if the charge was cancelled or renewed.

So if a website wants to know too much about you in order to give you their “free” product or service, just leave. Too much of a free thing can get really expensive!

The Internal Revenue Service provides free downloads of any of the federal income tax forms you could ever need, including many you will likely never need, at their website www.irs.gov. In addition to the free downloads people without internet access can easily pick up free forms at tax time at their local post office, library, or IRS center or office. You can receive your forms by mail every year at no charge simply by filling a mail in return or by requesting to receive the booklet and form when you e-file.

The most frequently requested federal income tax forms are form W-4, form W-9, form 1040, form SS4, and form 1040X.

Form W-4 is the form each person fills out when starting a new job on which the number of deductions and filing status is listed.

Form W-9 is a request for a taxpayer identification number which is required for work that a person does without withholding taxes such as contract and freelance work. This form will cause the employer to generate a form 1099 for the work done at the end of the year to be claimed as income.

Form 1040 is the form that most wage-earners will use to file their federal income taxes. From 1040X is for amendments to form 1040.

Form 1040EZ is designed for people with very simple tax lives who do not need to itemize their deductions.

Form SS4 is a form that requests an Employer Identification Number for people who intend to employ others in the course of running their businesses. All of these popular forms can be requested and/or downloaded right from the main landing page of the IRS website.

In addition to these basic federal income tax forms, a variety of other less common forms can be downloaded at the IRS website at http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/index.html. Included on this page are hot links to state income tax sites and forms, instructions for filling out tax forms, and other websites that provide important federal tax forms such as www.fedforms.gov and www.business.gov.

From the forms page of the IRS website, users can also order a variety of forms and publication by US mail, tax packages, employer forms and instructions, specialty distribution program products, tax products on CD and DVD, or purchase certain popular commercial tax products. The IRS does not want you to have any trouble getting the form you need. Finding out which form you need might be another issue, but once you know, you can get the form in any of at least half a dozen ways if not more.

If you are one of those people who just has a passion for keeping up with all the latest changes to federal tax law and how those changes are reflected in the current and future IRS stable of forms, you can read up the latest at http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/article/0,,id=97397,00.html.

The IRS also posts general news about forms and IRS changes and requirements at http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/index.html and much of this news is interesting to just about anyone. For instance, the news page includes some good articles about how the Alternative Minimum Tax will affect 2008 tax returns and forms, and also an update on the forms and steps needed to take deductions for hybrid cars and alternative-fuel vehicles.

Finally, if you survived Hurricane Katrina and are still patiently waiting for all the great help the federal government promised during the aftermath of that disaster, you can read up on which forms and actions you might need as of right now to keep pursuing that help at http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=148203,00.html.

Current mortgage refinance rates can be found at the websites of financial and lending institutions, real estate websites, personal finance websites, financial magazines, blogs, and e-zines, and the websites of major US newspapers. Refinance rates change from day to day and are based on optimal borrower credit. Borrowers with lower credit scores may be charged higher rates.

In addition, daily rates may differ from the weekly index rate, although both represent current rates by computing an average. Daily rates show changes from one day to the next. The weekly index rates show average rates over the course of the preceding week. By checking out both the daily rates and the weekly index, and then reading the rate analyses presented at various financial websites, you can get an approximate idea of what the rate situation is and whether or not now is the best time to refinance your home.

Most current mortgage refinance rate charts include access to a refinance calculator that will show how much you would save if you were to refinance your home at the current rate as compared with the rate locked in on your present mortgage.

A general rule of thumb is that if you are planning to move within the next three to five years, refinancing is probably not your best option unless the rates have dropped dramatically in a short period of time, and maybe not even then. Your ‘break-even point’ is the number of years it will take you to ‘break even’ after factoring in the cost of the refinance. Typically this will take at least three to five years.

Keep in mind that refinancing always includes closing costs that can run into thousands of dollars. Closing costs include legal fees, documentation fees, title insurance, appraisals, points (a percentage of the amount financed that you pay up front to reduce the interest rate), and mortgage origination fees. You will also be required to pay homeowner insurance for a year in advance and any taxes due that year.

Because of all these fees and associated costs, sometimes it is better and cheaper to keep your higher interest rate and just pay down the principal by making higher payments. This can save as much money as refinancing, or even more, without the closing costs.

Often people refinance from a 30 to a 15 year mortgage without realizing they can create their own 15 year mortgage (most of the time: check your terms to be certain) by just making additional principal payments.

For instance, if you currently pay $699 each month on a fixed rate 30-year mortgage on $100,000 at 7.5% and your have 25 years left, you can cut that remaining 25 years in half by paying $959 each month instead. The total savings over the life of the loan amounts to $62,215.00.

If you refinance at 6% for 15 years and pay one point and closing costs, your payment will be $844 but it will cost you almost $2700 (or more) and the savings over the life of the loan will be about $57,800. You actually save $4400 by keeping your current mortgage and just paying extra each month.

For more information on current mortgage refinancing rates and a variety of calculators to help you make mortgage related decisions, visit www.bankrate.com and click on ‘mortgage calculators’ or go to http://www.bankrate.com/brm/calculators/mortgages.asp.