Wells Fargo Will Let You Refinance For No Closing Costs Online
If you're saddled with a Wells Fargo mortgage, now would be a good time to slash your rate and payment through little effort by hitting up the bank's streamlined refinancing program, which under certain circumstances lets you refi without being gouged for closing costs.
You can find lower rates elsewhere, but you'll probably have to shell out upwards of $3,000 in fees to nab them. Granted, in most cases it's probably worth paying the closing costs because if you find a low enough rate you'll make up for the upfront fees in the long run, but paying that much only makes sense if you're sure you'll stay in your house for a couple more years.
I used the offer and shaved an eighth of a percentage point off my rate, dropped my payment by more than $200 a month and rolled less than $200 in administrative fees into my principal.
To get a streamlined mortgage refi, you need to (among other requirements) have no home equity lines of credit, owe less than what your property is worth and not have changed the names on the title since you closed the first time. Access your current mortgage through WellsFargo.com, click on the link to the right of your balance that says "refinance your mortgage," fill out an online application and if approved you'll be asked to send in your tax forms, pay stubs and bank account statements. Next you'll be sent a contract you'll need to have notarized, which I recommend doing at a Wells Fargo branch because they'll do it for free even though they'll also try to upsell you some new credit cards and savings accounts.
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I'd love to refinance right now, but I can't seem to get anyone to return my emails/calls. I've tried with US Bank (my current mortgage provider) and Suntrust. I know they are supposedly pretty busy, but it's kind of frustrating.
Hoo-Ray for Wells Fargo! I hope WaMu is listening.
I have WF right now for my mortgage right now. I have refinanced twice to a lower rate with no costs. I used to be impressed with the fact that if you called them asking for a loan payoff amount, they would politely ask first if you would like to refinance with them.
I still have over twice the equity in my house than the loan value and no credit card debt. I do have a home equity loan that I can pay off at anytime. But, I tried it again a couple of weeks ago. After giving them all the information (again) that they already have during a 30 minute phone call, the best they could do for me was to refi for a longer term at my existing rate.
No thanks. Pentagon Federal, here I come...
Filled out the form, although I've only had the mortgage for 2 years and with the decline in property values I'm not sure I have any equity in the house. Still worth a shot I guess, I'm certain I have much better credit now than I did 2 years ago with getting all my CC's paid off and a couple other loans payed way down as well. Might be able to drop a point of my mortgage.
Just confirming, the OP says, "home equity lines of credit." To me, that's not the same as a "home equity loan." So having a second is fine?
I tried this a month ago over the phone and was told no unless my home was worth 30% more than my outstanding amount. It wasn't of course by 30% but anywhere between 0%-25% based on fluctuating sold prices in the past 6 months. I have no other debt, paid on time and the mortgage is based solely on my salary alone. I didn't even count my wife's salary. Salary isn't even a factor if I wanted to refi with WF.
I have a home equity loan through wells fargo as well as my main mortgage and I was able to do their 123 refi w/ no closing costs.
Just filled out the form, we'll see what they come back with!
Sure sounds like a great deal, except if you reside in a handful of states, New Mexico being one of them. I attempted to refi using this method only to find my NO cost option would cost more than $4k to implement. WF stands by the fact this is open to all customers. However this could not be further from the truth. Think that WF is putting on a good PR face, but the follow thru is less than satisfactory.
Any clue if this applies to Wachovia mortgages now that WF owns them? Having gone from a two-job income to one, any drop in our monthly payment would be a relief.
@Saboth: I'm having the same issue with US Bank. I asked them for a refi, and the CSR said a loan officer would call me withing 30 days. As soon as I hung up, I said to my wife "we'll never get a call"
Sure enough, that was months ago and we never got a call.
so did you lower your payment so much by extending the length of the mortgage?
A home equity loan and a home equity line of credit will have the same priority problems for refinancing, since Wells Fargo doesn't want to have their primary mortgage drop in priority.
If your only goal is to lower your monthly payment, then you might find it worth refinancing even to a higher rate if you can extend the term from the term left on your current mortgage. In that equation, it doesn't matter what term your mortgage was originally for, it just matters how many years are left on it now. But you should keep in mind that you can wind up never paying off your mortgage if you keep refinancing to the same term as your original mortgage.
This is great, I did a refi about 3 months ago and the rates were around 5.5%...wells fargo picked up my mortgage so I guess I'll give it a try and see if I can refi for free to something a bit lower.
There is also a link on the main WF page that lets you look at current interest rates...not sure how accurate they are though.
I just called in and was told you do have to have 20% equity to qualify for this option. But its always worth checking.
How big of a mortgage do you need to drop $200 on an 1/8 point? I just refinanced from 6.125% to 4.875% and lowered the payment by $230.
@Saboth: I had the same problem with Wells Fargo. They were great at first, talked me into doing the credit app and had a great rate. Then I could not get a call back because they were so busy. In fact, after I finally called the office manager, I received a call from the broker saying she did not receive any of my messages since there may have been a problem with the voicemail. She also lied about the date I originally filed the credit app even though I had emails to prove otherwise. I decided to cut my losses and move on even though I had always thought of WF as a decent company. I wound up doing business with another bank which wrapped everything up right on schedule.
We had our mortgage with Wells Fargo for 5 years (30 fixed). When we refinanced 2 months ago, WF wouldn't even TALK to us. 5 years of perfect mortgage history with them (plus bank and credit card accounts with perfect history), more than enough equity (we pay 10% extra each month into the principle), 800+ credit scores for both of us, over 5 years at the same job with suitable income, and they weren't interested. And we had $15k in hand for $2-3k in closing costs and any amount they wanted as down payment into the principle. We called, filled out the online forms (which just went into a black hole I gather) and went into branches - the loan officer at the branch couldn't even be bothered to come downstairs to talk to us! And now they're refinancing for free??
I have enjoyed doing business with WF over the last 15 years, but they just didn't want our business. Other banks of course were clamoring for our loan so we went elsewhere and refinanced at just under 5%. I hope others have more luck.
Say I have an ARM through Wells Fargo that I'd like to refinance, and the first to restrictions are true, but I got divorced (and kept the house) since then. Does that count as the name changing on the title?
Hmm. Have only a mortgage with 32% equity, great credit score, loan less than 6 months old, never changed title owners. Called and they said I did not qualify. The irritating thing is they can't (or don't) tell you why.
@TheFuzz53: It's not about how big the mortgage is, it's about how much longer the new mortgage is than the years left on the existing mortgage.
I am completely done with Wells Fargo; our mortgage is with them currently, but won't be for long.
Two months ago I called and asked to refinance. They said no. I called a different mortgage broker and got a quote, then called Wells Fargo back and they were suddenly eager to refinance. I was promised a mortgage agent would call me back.
12 days later I call and ask why I haven't heard anything yet. They say it should take up to 7 days... "Oh, it seems that's past. I'm sorry..." apologize and give me names of two local Wells Fargo mortgage agents. Calls to both agents have gone completely without a response for 14 days.
They're obviously not interested in whatever my mortgage needs are at the moment, and so even with thousands in closing costs, it's worth it for me to look elsewhere. (It's worth noting that the CSR's who I originally spoke to were all sympathetic and happy to give me information on refinancing -- but the actual people who would do the refinancing for me don't seem to be alive, let alone able to talk.)
I have a 7 year balloon mortgage with Citimortgage at 6% that matures 6/1/09. Citimortgage is working with me to "reset" the mortgage to 5% for the remaining 23 years. Closing costs (some fees and taxes)are less than $500 which I'll make up for in a few months with the lower payment.
@Harry Pothead: WaMu's only a ghost at this point. It's JPMC that has to listen and they probably won't due to their current market position.
This is about where we are too. We have great credit, solid job history, combined income of $150k+, a pile of cash on hand (in WF accounts no less), loads of other Wells Fargo account "products", etc.
However, we do, admittedly, have a poor LTV ratio (but still above water) right now because of the sag in comps pricing. We probably could buy in to the principal and adjust the LTV a bit if they asked us to, but we can't even get a discussion going. We've been here for a while, and plan on staying for a LONG while, so resetting the clock on my 30-year doesn't scare me that much.
@lannister80: I had the same problem with US Bank so I called my plain old bank and they got the whole thing done in two weeks. With the exception of the closing the entire transaction was done via e-mail and postal mail.
@bostonmike: Most states have mechanisms to permit refinanced mortgages to maintain the same priority above second mortgages, i.e., they don't drop in position.
My parents tried to refi with Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo agreed, drew up all the paperwork, no conditions, and THEN told my parents they would have to reduce their never-used HELOC from $50K to $30K.
OK, fine.
My parents did that.
Then Wells Fargo came back after the HELOC was reduced and said no, sorry, the whole refi offer is rescinded, go jump in a lake.
@DonnaLilja: One possibility is there may be some fine print in your primary mortgage that prohibits you from re-financing in the first year. Rare, but I have seen this happen before.
And, of course, the bank likes to make up their own rules as they see fit.
@balthisar: All states have those mechanisms, but in most states it's extra paperwork and slower. Which is why Wells Fargo won't let you do the streamlined refi if you have a second.
@TheFuzz53: In addition to what bostonmike said, you can also lower your payment by making bigger principal payments on your current mortgage and then refinancing.
I also have a Wachovia mortgage. I filled out the application yesterday, and was contacted within a few hours. It seems that they just stared processing Wachovia mortgages in the last few days, so I was able to get a new quote on that mortgage.
Of course WF wants you to refi for "free". This is one of the great scams foisted on America by the banks. The "free" loan will result in tens or even hundreds of thousands more in interest over the life of the loan. The only ones who should use the "free" refi are those who will be in the loan no more than 12-24 months.
Hopefully other banks will follow WFs lead!