TyroneSchulace said:

Another bank wants to refi, saving me ~$350/mo, locking the rate, but with 2k closing cost.

I have 365k out in BTs, (earning/saving $1875/mo).

Pretty sure you'll lose more than you gain.
Back of envelope, or in this case in a post math sez...

Assumpitons Autumn = Oct.

Savings $350 * 6 months - $2K closing = $100.
Lost BT earnings $1875 * (how many months to unwind and reapply)?

Well we can stop there. Risks to waiting ishigher rates. Still before the pres. election so you'll probably be okay.

There are two ways continuing to carry the AOR credit card debt could hurt you relating to a mortgage refinance that I can identify, compared to paying it all off to zero balances:

1. "Backend" Debt to income ratio. I believe they would look at the required monthly payments (or perhaps, use the "recent payments" off each account in your credit report), add them all together to figure your debt to income ratio. There is a "front end ratio" and a "back end ratio". The credit card payments get added into the back end ratio but not the front end.

As long as the debt to income back end ratio isn't a weak link in your financing, I wouldn't assume there would be any problem carrying the credit card debt.

2. Inadequate credit score for best financing deal. If high utilizations are making your credit scores too weak, that can be fixed by paying back individual account utilization to (my recommendation) either: 69% (for some "good" effect), 49% ("better") 34% ("best, and good chance every bit as good as paying down to $0."). Based on research I have done (at least in the PM123 FAKO scores), there is very little to no benefit to paying utilizations down to below the 34% number. Of course, YMMV, and it likely would even depend which credit scoring algorithm is used, but I'd be surprised if you found much benefit to paying down lower than 34% utilization.

Those are just my thoughts. You might find a trustworthy, preferably non-commission based mortgage guy and ask him. You could try applying and see how far you get. Then if you receive feedback, perhaps you will know what to correct (how high to raise you credit score by, or how far your backend DTI ratio must be reduced) etc. Then if you don't qualify for the best rates, you know how to plan to achieve it (while not excessively giving up 0% BT profits.)

I use a mortgage officer based at a Wa Mu bank branch, and he is paid salary and so has no motivations to sell to me. He has proven an excellent source of information for me. Having a contact like that guy would be useful for getting info.

Best of luck!

jakeru said:
2. Inadequate credit score for best financing deal. If high utilizations are making your credit scores too weak, that can be fixed by paying back individual account utilization to (my recommendation) either: 69% (for some "good" effect), 49% ("better") 34% ("best, and good chance every bit as good as paying down to $0."). Based on research I have done (at least in the PM123 FAKO scores), there is very little to no benefit to paying utilizations down to below the 34% number. Of course, YMMV, and it likely would even depend which credit scoring algorithm is used, but I'd be surprised if you found much benefit to paying down lower than 34% utilization.

These utilization numbers are probably bogus. The generally accepted thresholds for significant positive impact are below 90% and below 50%.

It's done. I called my loan officer this morning and very nicely started discussing current interest rates. She cut me off with "How does 5% sound? Then let it reset in December like it always does." Done deal, no paperwork for me, new rate on May 1st. That turned out to be easier than the typing for this thread.(I'm a lousy typist.)

Yeah, no application, pretty sure no pull. She didn't say anything about it, just made the offer. 10 year history I think really helped. They know me by my first name, and I've had other loans with them. She said since the loan was already set up for yearly rate adjustments, it would be no problem to do an interim one. They just send me a letter every year. This year I'll get two.