Interest rates have dropped almost a full percentage point since we bought our home so I e-mailed my Wells Fargo mortgage broker to see what programs they had. We're also looking at adding an addition so tapping into some equity would be nice. He said that WF had a no-cost refinance program where they would basically pay all the closing costs and lower my interest rate. All we would need to do is give him our info again, they pay for an appraisal, and then we sign the docs in front of a notary and we are refi'd. He also said that if the rates dropped again, we could do another No Cost Refi

Anyone had any experience with WF No-Cost Refinance? The WF guy called it a retention program to keep borrowers with WF. I'm guessing they make their money by making you pay points since the interest rate he quoted on a 30/20/15 year fixed was 5.75%/5.625%/5.125% vs. their typical rates of 5.5%/5.375%/4.875%.

Any tips/experiences?

We did a no-cost refi with WF in 2003, but they got us to switch from a mortgage from another lender. It was a targeted mailing.

It was great, we still hold that mortgage. I forget how long it took to close, but it was probably the easiest loan we've ever closed on. Everything was signed by mail, they sent postage paid envelopes for all of that, including fedex for the final docs going back to them. I think they may have required notarization on the signatures, but our bank is convenient to do that at no charge. They didn't do an appraisal and had an unusual limitation that they would not consider a loan for anything other than our existing first mortgage. It was a great rate, I would have liked to roll in some other debt, and we had plenty of equity. But it wasn't an option. Possibly part of their plan to limit risk without extra expense for things like the appraisal.

Their web site had an "upgrade" this summer and lost the ability to see (or modify) payments scheduled for the future. That's a PITA, but otherwise we're happy customers and there were no shenanigans like adding costs to the loan amount.

I am interested in hearing more. Their 30y rate today was quoted as 5.875.

how does this stuff work? I too am looking to refi and wonder if I should do it now or wait for rates to drop further. Do the lower rates only last for a day or two after a rate cut? Does it have something to do with supply and demand? I'm reading everywhere that mortgage brokers have been working on a 24hr schedule in the last couple of days.

MisterMe said:how does this stuff work? I too am looking to refi and wonder if I should do it now or wait for rates to drop further. Do the lower rates only last for a day or two after a rate cut? Does it have something to do with supply and demand? I'm reading everywhere that mortgage brokers have been working on a 24hr schedule in the last couple of days.

All rates fluctuate depending on a number of factors and I'm not informed enough to explain it throughly. Yesterday the market had some wild swings and with it, the mortgage rates. Some speculate that it is better to wait a week or so because there is a good chance that rates will drop again after the Fed meets and only a slight chance that they will go up again.

Personally, I'm waiting now that rates hit a low and bounced back up a little bit. I'm in no hurry right now though and am willing to take a chance that they'll go down or stay the same. What do I know though; I'm broke. Try this THREAD. It has some good advice.

pimy said:I agree, that totally sucked. Further, they started charging $5 (I think) to make payments via one-time transfers from other financial institutions. You can sign up for automatic payments or make one-time payments from a Wells account to avoid the fee, but I miss the freedom of scheduling payments whenever I wanted to.
This scared me, but I just rechecked. I make payments via ACH from a different bank (my regular checking account). There's no fee, and I have not set it up for automatic payments.

I log on, pick this mortgage, click on the Make a Payment link. Choose "Make a payment immediately from a non-Wells Fargo checking or savings account" and Continue. Turns out "immediately" is a lie - the next page includes "Date you would like us to deduct the payment from your bank account", defaulted to 'today'. I change that and set Number of Payments to 1. Below that is static text for the Transaction Fee - mine shows $0.

My mortgage balance with them is under $90k now and I don't have any other accounts with them, so I doubt I'm getting any special waiver of the fee. Are you doing or seeing something different?

I just locked in a very good interest rate of 5.375% for 30-yr fixed yesterday afternoon via a mortgage broker, not with WF. The rate swinged up quite a bit today, so you'll have to wait for next week's meeting for another rate cut hopefully.

No cost refi comes with higher interest rates, so you'll have to do the math with your plan for your property to figure out whether it's worthwhile paying closing cost with a lower rate or no closing cost with a higher rate. I financed thru WF 1 1/2 years ago when I bought my condo and paid nothing at closing. It was a good deal.

However, getting out of WF might be somewhat sticky though. I'm re-financing my 1st trust and keeping WF's 2nd trust (2nd trust has to be subordinated/attached to the new first trust with a new lender or even with WF'S new first trust if you cannot consolidate 2 mortgages). WF was being a pain in the neck by holding my 2nd trust document for a long time. My 5% down payment/equity might have been part of the reason, but just be aware if you're in a similar situation to mine.

Shop around more or even work with a mortgage broker to find best rates you can. Brokers usually get better rates than what banks offer directly to consumers.

p.s. WF mortgage website is good and if you have a BofA CC, you can schedule WF mortgage payments in advance via Bill Pay!

MisterMe said:bigdaddycincinnati said:you may be better off taking a higher rate and not paying any, and I mean any, closing costs.

If there are no closing costs involved why not just refinance every time the rate drops a quarter point off your rate?

not sure if they limit the amount of times you can do it. if not, you could do that.

calling Wells fargo right now...

ok just got off with them, right off that bat i ask if they have the no cost refinance, and they asked which state i am in, i told them MA. They said they dont have no cost refinance in MA.. they said its a MASS law? I didnt purse any furthur when they asked for my SSN. So is it true there are no deals like this for MA people?

I thought it was strange that he mentioned 'in the state of Washington...'. I was guessing it was just a ploy to get me to go along with it since I felt like it was a special deal or something. I was also skeptical about the ‘no-cost’ but after looking around some more, I guess I can see their justification.

My WF broker said I have to keep it at least 20% equity. Another plus to the deal would be if I went through with it, I would close at the end of Feb, skip the March payment and start paying again in April. I guess this is nice because if I refi’d at 20 years instead of 30, the extra amount of each payment would be offset by only making 11 payments (for the first year at least).

Still no response from him as to if I could do it over and over again after every quarter point rate drop.