Question

I have managed to pay off all credit, hospital, car and etc. debt between October and today! Student loans are all that I have left and I am 12 points (credit score) away from refinancing them with a much lower interest rate. Any experience with this? Also, I am hoping to purchase a home in the next 3 months and have just received my pre-approval. How has financing a home immediately impacted your credit scores? (hope this post is allowed).  

Answer 1

That’s fantastic! I don’t know the answer for u but well done!  

Answer 2

If you are trying to buy a home then do not do anything else on your credit until after your home is bought! wait till after you but the house to Refi your loans! Also congrats!  

Answer 3

Thank you all! I'm just trying to decide if I should purchase a home and then focus on refinancing student loans or focus on refinancing the loans first. Believe it or not, it's easier to buy a home than refinance student loans!  

Comments

@hennessey just explained a lot below. We also sold and bought a new home last year. I would probably suggest focus on the house to keep your credit score more stable. Ideally when buying a house you only have to be pre-qualified once, but if you don’t find a house in that matter of time you may have to do it again.  

Answer 4

I just refinanced for a lower interest rate. I used a private company called earnest after another person in this group mentioned it. They do a soft credit check to get you a estimated interest rate, but once I signed up and accepted the loan it’s a hard credit pull. I don’t know the ins and out of credit checks, but I know you really only want 1 hard pull a year and then I think 2 years between those to keep your credit score more stable. Don’t quote me on it, but this is what I’ve kind of followed.  

Answer 5

If you’ve already been preapproved, please DO NOT pursue any refinancing or other lending at all until you’ve closed on the purchase of your home. Doing so can have a big effect on your mortgage terms or even void your preapproval. (At least this is what we have been told by our loan officers every time we’ve purchased a home).