I love credit cards so much! v3.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[Minnie368]

@punkin -
We recently bought a new refrigerator, stove, dishwasher, microwave. We bought them all at Lowe's. They had a price match guarantee that if you find a lower price on the same model somewhere else they would beat it by 10%. The Lowe's employee who helped us tipped us off the the fact that Home Depot's prices were typically 1 or 2 cents cheaper so we could use that as the price match and get 10% off. For example, our frig was $2398.99 at Lowe's and $2398.97 at Home Depot, so we pulled that up on our phone and they gave us 10% of Home Depot's price. When we looked around at all the places around here that sold appliances, that was the best deal every time. I'm not sure if every Lowe's does that.

Edited because I quoted the wrong post

 

[Brandilla]

I'm trying to change a flight on southwest and keep getting an error "Expected pricing not matched". Has anyone here ran into this before? Its been happening for about 2 hours and no price changes have happened.

 

[hlhlaw07]

I'm trying to change a flight on southwest and keep getting an error "Expected pricing not matched". Has anyone here ran into this before? Its been happening for about 2 hours and no price changes have happened.

I had that happen to me a month or so ago. I was never able to get it to work and I never bothered calling in to see if they could fix it. I just ended up cancelling the flight and then turning around and using the travel funds for the lesser priced ticket. It was definitely frustrating, but can be worked around.

 

[Disneyonmymind]

I would like to get some advice about refinancing from some of you experts out there. My sister and her husband have a mortgage at 5.5% with only 5 years left to pay. Their bank is offering them a 3.4% rate on a home equity installment loan with zero costs. The bank says it will lower their payment and also save them total interest compared to the amount of interest left in their existing mortgage. She is asking me for advice but that's a little out of my arena, lol. I know that interest is front-loaded on a mortage so I think they should find out exactly how much interest is left to pay on their existing mortgage. How do they do that? They were given an amortization schedule long ago but they have made extra payments so that one is not valid anymore. Do they just call their bank/mortgage company?

Also, second question is regarding HELOCs. Their bank is also encouraging them to include approval for a HELOC at prime minus various small amounts depending on the amount they request. Is there an advantage for this? They don't need any additional funds right now or they'd include it in their refi amount. They just want to continue paying their mortgage off in the same 5 years they had planned. But there are some potential expenses in their future. Is this really advantageous to lock in a prime minus rate? I remember a lot of discussion in the past on refi and also HELOCs but I kind of skimmed it.

If anyone can help, I'd be so appreciative. My sister thinks I know this stuff even though I told her I don't. Also, I'm a little behind so hopefully this wasn't recently discussed, haha.

 

[2TxAgs]

I would like to get some advice about refinancing from some of you experts out there. My sister and her husband have a mortgage at 5.5% with only 5 years left to pay. Their bank is offering them a 3.4% rate on a home equity installment loan with zero costs. The bank says it will lower their payment and also save them total interest compared to the amount of interest left in their existing mortgage. She is asking me for advice but that's a little out of my arena, lol. I know that interest is front-loaded on a mortage so I think they should find out exactly how much interest is left to pay on their existing mortgage. How do they do that? They were given an amortization schedule long ago but they have made extra payments so that one is not valid anymore. Do they just call their bank/mortgage company?

If they looked at their old amortization schedule and 'jumped ahead' to their current remaining principal balance, that will show them the remaining interest and payments. For example, even though it's June 2020 today, and let's say their loan is complete in June 2025, they'd have 60 additional payments. But if their current principal balance is greater than what the schedule shows for June 2020 (let's assume it matches the principal balance shown for Mar 2021 on their amort schedule) then they can count their remaining payments from that date, so they essentially have only 51 payments remaining. And if they continue to prepay, they'll have even fewer than 51 total payments left. I'm a fan of the mortgage and prepayment calculators on bankrate.com

 

[2TxAgs]

Hey!!!! Just noticed that this past Wed is my 19yr anniversary on the DIS. As they say....where did the time go???

 

[Brandilla]

I had that happen to me a month or so ago. I was never able to get it to work and I never bothered calling in to see if they could fix it. I just ended up cancelling the flight and then turning around and using the travel funds for the lesser priced ticket. It was definitely frustrating, but can be worked around.

Thanks for the response! I was considering doing this but wasn't sure if I'd get the $22 in fees back. Did you get yours credited back?

 

[hlhlaw07]

Thanks for the response! I was considering doing this but wasn't sure if I'd get the $22 in fees back. Did you get yours credited back?

Everything was refunded. I didn’t have EBCI so I didn’t have that to deal with so canceling and rebooking worked perfectly for me.

 

[Hoosier John]

I would like to get some advice about refinancing from some of you experts out there. My sister and her husband have a mortgage at 5.5% with only 5 years left to pay. Their bank is offering them a 3.4% rate on a home equity installment loan with zero costs. The bank says it will lower their payment and also save them total interest compared to the amount of interest left in their existing mortgage. She is asking me for advice but that's a little out of my arena, lol. I know that interest is front-loaded on a mortage so I think they should find out exactly how much interest is left to pay on their existing mortgage. How do they do that? They were given an amortization schedule long ago but they have made extra payments so that one is not valid anymore. Do they just call their bank/mortgage company?

Also, second question is regarding HELOCs. Their bank is also encouraging them to include approval for a HELOC at prime minus various small amounts depending on the amount they request. Is there an advantage for this? They don't need any additional funds right now or they'd include it in their refi amount. They just want to continue paying their mortgage off in the same 5 years they had planned. But there are some potential expenses in their future. Is this really advantageous to lock in a prime minus rate? I remember a lot of discussion in the past on refi and also HELOCs but I kind of skimmed it.

If anyone can help, I'd be so appreciative. My sister thinks I know this stuff even though I told her I don't. Also, I'm a little behind so hopefully this wasn't recently discussed, haha.

No expert here, but crude rule of thumb in the old days (pre 2008) was you needed to live (in their case, pay) there for at least 5 years for a refi to make sense. I suspect it will be a slight advantage to doing the refi, but maybe not enough reward for the effort they will go through.

If they think there will be some need for money soon, a mortgage (or HELOC) is a good way to get it (better rates than loans, and tax benefits). They could pull out some equity and roll that into the refi, while the rates are low.

The HELOC discussion I remember was from SouthFayetteFan who had devised a method to create MS thru his HELOC with very little cost.

 

[hsmamato2]

i have a Hilton Surpass card, AF due soon (July 5) I already hold a basic Hh cc,will they allow me to pc down to another basic card? I hate to cancel anything in this current state of things cc wise, but I won't be getting any value from that $95 af....

 

[Bigmace]

No expert here, but crude rule of thumb in the old days (pre 2008) was you needed to live (in their case, pay) there for at least 5 years for a refi to make sense. I suspect it will be a slight advantage to doing the refi, but maybe not enough reward for the effort they will go through.

A 5 year rule isn't really a smart rule of thumb to go by. You can calculate how many months it would take to come out on top with a refi. We refinanced last year to save .75% interest and it was like 2 years to break even; plus our mortgage dropped like $200 a month. We continued to pay the same amount as before putting that extra $200 right towards principle so it will be worth after like 1.5 years.

 

[Judique]

If you haven't seen this one, here it is. I'm already looking for my January, February and March travel receipts just in case something like this actually passes.

https://www.wdwinfo.com/news-storie...low-4000-per-adult-tax-credit-for-u-s-travel/

 

[georgina]

If you haven't seen this one, here it is. I'm already looking for my January, February and March travel receipts just in case something like this actually passes.

https://www.wdwinfo.com/news-storie...low-4000-per-adult-tax-credit-for-u-s-travel/

I don't think there is any way that will get passed by both houses of congress!

 

[Judique]

I don't think there is any way that will get passed by both houses of congress!

I didn't believe anyone would get 1200 stim or an extra 600 on top for unemployment so although I actually think like you, I'm keeping a 1% chance open, lol.

 

[Hoosier John]

A 5 year rule isn't really a smart rule of thumb to go by. You can calculate how many months it would take to come out on top with a refi. We refinanced last year to save .75% interest and it was like 2 years to break even; plus our mortgage dropped like $200 a month. We continued to pay the same amount as before putting that extra $200 right towards principle so it will be worth after like 1.5 years.

Oh, I agree completely. Thanks for pointing that out.

By mentioning the "5 year rule of thumb", I meant that it was worth looking into. Still need to do their homework on the numbers before/after making the move.

 

[platamama]

I would like to get some advice about refinancing from some of you experts out there. My sister and her husband have a mortgage at 5.5% with only 5 years left to pay. Their bank is offering them a 3.4% rate on a home equity installment loan with zero costs. The bank says it will lower their payment and also save them total interest compared to the amount of interest left in their existing mortgage. She is asking me for advice but that's a little out of my arena, lol. I know that interest is front-loaded on a mortage so I think they should find out exactly how much interest is left to pay on their existing mortgage. How do they do that? They were given an amortization schedule long ago but they have made extra payments so that one is not valid anymore. Do they just call their bank/mortgage company?

Also, second question is regarding HELOCs. Their bank is also encouraging them to include approval for a HELOC at prime minus various small amounts depending on the amount they request. Is there an advantage for this? They don't need any additional funds right now or they'd include it in their refi amount. They just want to continue paying their mortgage off in the same 5 years they had planned. But there are some potential expenses in their future. Is this really advantageous to lock in a prime minus rate? I remember a lot of discussion in the past on refi and also HELOCs but I kind of skimmed it.

If anyone can help, I'd be so appreciative. My sister thinks I know this stuff even though I told her I don't. Also, I'm a little behind so hopefully this wasn't recently discussed, haha.

Like @2TxAgs I'm also a fan of the calculators on Bankrate, but your sister might check directly with her mortgage company. With my mortgage company, I can log into my account and see the current remaining amortization schedule, month by month. Can her bank give her a printout of her current mortgage amortization and the proposed home equity installment loan so that she can compare side by side to see what makes sense for her? A 2.1% rate drop is massive, but perhaps her overall savings is not. Out of curiosity, I ran my own numbers on Bankrate, and it looks like I would end up paying more in interest if I refinanced at a lower rate because I only have 7 years left on my mortgage. But the rate is only 0.5% less than what I have right now, so that's not a great comparison.

I like HELOCs as an emergency source of funds. You don't have to draw from the HELOC if you don't need the money, but you have the access if you do need money. The main drawback to them IME is that you can be hit with a penalty if you close the HELOC before the terms expire. I've been hit with a $500 penalty for closing a HELOC. In one case it was because we sold our house when DH was laid off and we ended up moving for his new job in another state. Another time I got hit with a penalty for refinancing my mortgage with another bank for a lower interest rate. It's a good idea to ask about a penalty before opening a HELOC.

The tax-deductible interest on HELOCs changed with the 2017 tax law changes, so you can no longer deduct the interest unless the funds were used to buy, build or substantially improve your home (up to certain caps). No more using it to fund college or anything like that. I mean, you can use it for that, but the interest is no longer deductible like it was before the 2017 tax law changes.

 

[Hoosier John]

Like @2TxAgs I'm also a fan of the calculators on Bankrate, but your sister might check directly with her mortgage company. With my mortgage company, I can log into my account and see the current remaining amortization schedule, month by month. Can her bank give her a printout of her current mortgage amortization and the proposed home equity installment loan so that she can compare side by side to see what makes sense for her? A 2.1% rate drop is massive, but perhaps her overall savings is not. Out of curiosity, I ran my own numbers on Bankrate, and it looks like I would end up paying more in interest if I refinanced at a lower rate because I only have 7 years left on my mortgage. But the rate is only 0.5% less than what I have right now, so that's not a great comparison.

I like HELOCs as an emergency source of funds. You don't have to draw from the HELOC if you don't need the money, but you have the access if you do need money. The main drawback to them IME is that you can be hit with a penalty if you close the HELOC before the terms expire. I've been hit with a $500 penalty for closing a HELOC. In one case it was because we sold our house when DH was laid off and we ended up moving for his new job in another state. Another time I got hit with a penalty for refinancing my mortgage with another bank for a lower interest rate. It's a good idea to ask about a penalty before opening a HELOC.

The tax-deductible interest on HELOCs changed with the 2017 tax law changes, so you can no longer deduct the interest unless the funds were used to buy, build or substantially improve your home (up to certain caps). No more using it to fund college or anything like that. I mean, you can use it for that, but the interest is no longer deductible like it was before the 2017 tax law changes.

Great info on HELOCs!

 

[Disneyonmymind]

Thanks, everyone!! I'm going to ask my sister to see if she can set up an online account with her mortgage company. If that works, it will be the easiest way to see exactly what is going on with her existing mortgage. I never thought of that. I did checkout bankrate.com's calculators. They look helpful.

 

[havaneselover]

Just got an email from Ticketmaster that my Mariners game in August was cancelled and I'll automatically be refunded. Yippee!

 

[afan]

Just got an email from Ticketmaster that my Mariners game in August was cancelled and I'll automatically be refunded. Yippee!

I was wondering if that was going to happen soon since they're doing an all new schedule. And there won't be fans.