Mortgage Rate News

When Christmas is over, many people begin to wonder how they can sell or exchange their gifts. And, as gift cards have become more popular, they are part of this speculation. Blueprint for Financial Prosperity offers some useful information on selling or trading your unwanted gift cards:

Selling you gift cards

First of all, when you sell your gift cards, you  may have to accept less than the face value of your card. You may have to discount it 10% to 50% — or more — in order to do the deal. But you still get the cash.

As one might expect, eBay is one of the places you can sell your gift card. You will have fees to pay, though. You can also sell gift cards on Craig’s List. However, you may have to do face-to-face transactions with Craig’s List. Blueprint also points out there is a site called Gift Card Rescue that allows you to sell gift cards.

And, of course, you can always sell direct to friends.

Trading in your gift card

You can also trade in your gift card for another gift card. It may be that you would prefer a card to a different retailer than the card that you have. Blueprint offers Card Avenue and Plastic Jungle as two sites that can facilitate gift card trades.

One of the nice things about doing a gift card trade is that you get a closer approximation of face value. A straight up trade, rather than selling, usually means that you get something much closer to the face value, since you aren’t trading for cash.

As always, though, it is a good idea to be careful to avoid scams, and to deal with sites and with people that can be trusted. As with many of these opportunities, selling or trading your gift cards can mean that you become a target for the unscrupulous. So be on your guard.

One of the traditions that I love that my family does is to stay home for Christmas. When we first married, my husband and I decided that we wanted to celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in a relaxed way. And, since our family all lived hundreds of miles away, traveling was very inconvenient. We so enjoyed our ability to take it easy on Christmas as hermits that we made it our tradition. And now we wait to see family until the day after Christmas.

Grateful for our home

Last year we bought a home, and we are very grateful that we have it. Our home is lovely at Christmas (at least I think so). We are also glad that we were able to get a 30 year fixed rate for our mortgage loan. It is a good mortgage. However, this Christmas we are thinking of refinancing — even though we’ve only been in the house for a year. Interest rates are very low, and we could probably refinance to a 20 year mortgage loan, helping us pay off the mortgage faster and build equity at a more rapid rate.

Other things I have been considering this Christmas, with regard to my home, include:

• Putting in a sprinkler system.
• Planting attractive shrubs to increase curb appeal.
• Moving rooms around so that my home office is upstairs.
• Planting a garden.

Since our home was new construction, a lot of things were missing. We have been saving up money so that we can makes changes to the yard and the landscaping. We would love to  see improvements, since they will increase the value of our home, and allow us to sell it more easily when the time comes.

Christmas is a time of reflection and gratitude, as well as being a time to enjoy family. Happily, we are able to enjoy the season. I hope that you are having a lovely and blessed holiday season as well.

Merry Christmas from the Banks.com Mortgage Blog!

One of the debates that often surfaces surrounding the home mortgage loan is whether or not it is worth it to pay your mortgage off early. Since I am of the school that it is better to get out of debt as soon as possible, I tend to be on the side of doing what you can to pay off the mortgage early. Others are not so sure. The Greenest Dollar has a great article examining the debate over whether or not to pay your mortgage off early:

Don’t pay your mortgage off early

There are some compelling arguments for keeping your mortgage:

• You get a tax deduction for your mortgage interest.
• You can make your mortgage payments, and then invest the extra in the stock market. (Although for those looking to make immediate returns, this may not be the best move right now.)
• You have more liquidity when your assets aren’t all tied up in your house.

Pay your mortgage off early

Of course, the flipside is that there are definite advantages to paying your mortgage off as soon as possible. (The Greenest Dollar points out that “mortgage” is French for “death contract.”)

• The feeling of freedom you have when you get rid of a rather large obligation. (Stress is reduced as well.)
• Once you pay off the mortgage, your monthly liquidity returns, since you have that cash that would have gone to the mortgage payment.
• You actually own your home. Remember: As long as you have a mortgage, you do not actually own your home. The mortgage lender does.
• You save a great deal of money in interest payments — more than you can save in tax deductions.

One way you can pay off your mortgage early is to set up payments on a biweekly schedule, rather than a monthly schedule. This way you get one extra payment a year. Another thing you can do is send an extra payment when you have the money, designated as “for principal only”, to reduce the amount you owe. Just make sure that your mortgage doesn’t come with a prepayment penalty.