On Tue, 02 Mar 2021 00:50:55 -0500, wrote:

On Mon, 1 Mar 2021 23:07:18 -0500, Ralph Mowery
wrote:

In article ,
says...

On the other hand, those who got variable rates in 1992 when they
were starting at 9.25%, made out quite well as they quickly dropped
to 7 and later 5%.



When the rates drop one can usually negociate for the lower rates even
on fixed rates, or go to another bank (lender).


You'd need to buy your way out of the mortgage - the penalty
is usually the interest they are losing plus a fee for the
trouble.
John T.
I have refinanced a few times before. It really just depends on
whether you have an early payment penalty written into your mortgage.
Some do, some don't. You need to read before you sign or maybe spend a
couple hundred and have your lawyer read it. Personally I would never
sign a mortgage that I couldn't pay off early if I came into some
extra money. You also want to be sure additional payments come off the
principal and not just credited as future payments made early. The
faster you can knock down that principal the cheaper your property
ends up being. Even cutting a hundred bucks a month off the principal
really makes a big difference on the back end. You get that lawyer
money back many times over.
OTOH if you are just a person who makes the scheduled payments and
makes no effort to get out from under the debt, it really doesn't
matter.