How to, and how soon to, re-fi

mysterythemoon · ‎03-13-2017

I'm 32 and started building and rebuilding my credit in July 2016. Went from high 400s and tons of baddies, to getting a secured card for $200, to six months later, no baddies and about $9k of credit spread around Amex, CSP, and NFCU. Well around the time I had just applied for all these nice cards, I had my credit in good shape. EX was at 747. But i had a very thin file. Then my car broke down. Never had a car loan before. Took out a loan for a late-model used car for $17k from NFCU at 16.6%. Now it's March and I've gotten some generic looking messages from CK saying I could refinance and save a lot. Here are my concerns: Since I applied for all those cards, and then the car loan in Decemeber, my credit fell into the mid 600's. I was expecting this. Other concern is that I have a ChexSystems mark, which eliminates a lot of places (such as DCU) from doing business with me. So with those concerns out of the way: Is it too soon to re-fi? Is there a place I can go to get a better rate with my credit profile?

Started on July 4th, 2016 with 400's FAKO scores, no FICO, a dozen baddies and no credit of any kind.

As of March 2018, Before The Fall:
AmEx Blue Cash Everyday: $12,600
Chase Sapphire Preferred: $10,000
Bank Of America BankAmericard: $6,000
Capital One Quicksilver One: $5,500
Citi Diamond Preferred: $5,400
NFCU Cash Rewards Visa Signature: $5,100
NFCU Go Rewards MasterCard World: $5,000
Wells Fargo Propel: $3,500
Barclay's Uber Visa: $2,500
AmEx Starwood Preferred Guest: $2,000
Citi Double Cash: $1,500
AmEx Hilton Honors: $1,000
Discover It: $600
Capital One Platinum: $500

TOTAL 2018 CREDIT LINE: $61,200

JUNE 2023 UPDATE
2020: COVID toppled me. All old accounts went into default. Business lost. Car repossessed.
2021: Cap1 let me back in (one secured/two not). Secured Mission Lane. AU on AMEX Gold, Citi Premier and Chase Sapphire. Car loan approved without cosigner for $20,000. All current.
Currently: No lawsuits. Thinking most SOL have expired on CC debt. Fingers crossed my math and memory are correct.

CURRENT SITUATION:
Mission Lane Secured: $3,400 (SL $400 -- unasked for CLI)
Capital One Secured: $300
Capital One QS1: $300
Capital One Savor: $1,000
Chase Sapphire Preferred: $10,000 (AU)
AMEX Gold: No Preset Limit (AU)
Citi Premier: $8,500 (AU)

SPRING 2026
ALL BADDIES DROP

K-in-Boston · ‎03-13-2017

Not sure about places to app, but the CK is just marketing. They try to tell me every time I log in that I am paying too much on my 0.9% loan and I could save thousands by refinancing it. PenFed may be worth a shot, though. My understanding is that if you qualify everyone gets the current rate. Someone please correct me if I am wrong. We refinanced my wife's van at 1.99% if that helps.

Anonymous · ‎03-13-2017

Its never too early to refinance. I did it less than a week between loans once to cut interest in half. The key is to make sure the LTV is at or lower than 100% for best terms and easiest chances of approval. If your scores are much better and you have a LTV near 100% then there is no harm in trying short of the HP. I refinanced our Honda twice, first loan 12.57% 6 month later scores improve so I refinance with Cap One at 8.5% then less than a week later I join NFCU and get offered 4.29%. These changes save me more than $7,000 over the life of the loan so its well worth doing.

Anonymous · ‎03-16-2017

I would always suggest to Refi if you can. The biggest thing to keep in my is LTV, where I live, banks use NADA clean trade values for financing. I have a credit union I use that will finance up to 135-140% of clean trade depending on credit. They are also a score based lender for rate purposes, meaning no matter the LTV your rate is based off of the tier you are placed in based on credit score. Anything that saves you money in interest will be beneficial to you. Keep in mind that most auto loans are simple interest with no pre-payment penalties (depending on the lender of course.) So it's always a good idea to pay extra towards your principal in order to cut back on finance charges as well as cutting back on building negative equity attributed to higher rates.