Tuesday, November 24, 2009

How To Refinance Your Mortgage Despite Bad Credit

By Jim Plycki

The current credit crisis and weak economy have led to tighter reins on banking loan officers concerning who can qualify for loans. For most people with a credit score anywhere below perfect, the are not able to obtain a loan. But some special cases negate this rule. Bad credit mortgage refinancing is one of the most common exceptions.

What is happening is that banks have been foreclosing on a lot of homes and finding that the only way to get them off the books is to take a huge loss when reselling them. In order to prevent this loss, many banks will gladly work with a homeowner who truly wants to avoid not repaying their mortgage loan.

Even though late payments and bad credit card debt may have lowered their credit scores below the normal threshold of acceptance, homeowners seeking to refinance their mortgage to take advantage of better interest rates and/or to extend their payment term to get lower payments will be considered based on their merits as customers of the individual banks rather than their credit scores.

A person with poor credit could be a better loan candidate if they voluntarily enter a credit counseling program. It is a good reflection on a person if he/she is trying to find ways to reduce debt while avoiding the temptation ot file bankruptcy.

A bank will want to know what the applicant has planned for the money that will become available with the refinancing. Most times, if the money is going to be used to increase the value of the home through home improvements, or to pay of high interest lines of credit and make it easier for the applicant to pay back the money, a bank is more than happy to accept the loan application. The way they look at it is that you are doing your best to get out of you debt situation, even if it means taking on more debt at only at better terms.

This may be the single best time to seek a bad credit mortgage refinancing loan. Solely because banks are worried about the debts that are being defaulted on and can not be collected. Due to this, there are cases where the bank is willing to step out of its comfort zone and refinance and have to accept a longer repayment period than expected. They feel that at least they are still getting back the full amount of the loan, and not having to lose money. They also collect more interest on the money, so it is really a win/win situation for them.

The two key points to consider in applying for bad credit mortgage refinancing is how the money will be used and how the borrower's ability to repay will be improved.

There are many reasons for looking into refinancing. These include, but are not limited to: getting a lower interest rate, making the repayment term longer and lowering payments, making home improvements on the home and property, and/or paying off high interest debts in order to make it easier to repay the mortgage. If a person can provide satisfactory proof that the loan will be repaid easier and that the money is being used in a positive way, then the odds of being approved are good even though he/she has a bad credit score.

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