Annual Percentage Rate (APR) Magical Number or Myth When Shopping For Mortgage Refinancing Or Second Mortgage Loans. Page 2

3) Manipulation of the title fees. Ordinarily, the title company's settlement, or closing fee is an

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APR fee, while their title insurance cost is not. Peckenpaugh explains, "Recently, in order to minimize the effect to the APR, title companies began simply decreasing their closing fee, while subsequently increasing their title insurance fee by the same amount, thereby reducing the APR."

4) Lack of industry awareness of what is accurate. Most mortgage loan or refinancing officers do not intentionally try to mislead, but inaccurate ( life insurance ) information could result in the consumer making a poor decision.

As opposed to APR, consumers would be better served by asking the following simple questions.

1) What is the mortgage interest rate?
2) What is the total mortgage loan amount?
3) What is the monthly mortgage payment (principal and interest)?
4) How much are the closing costs?

Generally, a written estimate covering all of the above can be generated by the mortgage loan-refinancing officer and provided to you in the form of a "Good Faith Estimate" and/or a "Truth In Lending Statement". Then, you can compare these documents between mortgage lenders in order to determine the authenticity and accuracy of your quotes. For further ( life assurance ) mortgage financing or refinancing information, contact Bob Peckenpaugh, Manager, CFIC Home Mortgage, at 1-800-943-9472.