Do you have poor credit?  Are you also stuck in a loan that you may not be able to continue paying in a few months?  Refinancing is usually an option for most people, but for people with bad credit, it really makes the banks think twice about offering refinance options, since you've already shown that you haven't handled credit and loans too well.  Luckily, there are some poor credit refinance options available, and I will explain them to you.

Banks are hesitant to change up the loan for people with poor credit, but they are willing to under certain circumstances.  The first is that you'll have to have a regular source of income.  This is to help the banks to know that you'll be able to pay on the new finance terms.  If you've recently been laid off, or if you're between jobs, you'll need to wait until you actually have had a job for about a month before the banks will consider refinancing your loan.

The second method they use to help to ensure they are getting their money is to have much higher interest rates over a longer period of time.  While this does help someone in the short term who needs to have a lower monthly payment, the person will end up paying a far larger amount over the length of the loan in return for the refinance option.

This is something that you definitely need to consider before going in to refinance your loan.  Do you really need to pay less each month now, or can you continue with your current loan and make sacrifices in other areas?  If you cannot make your current payments, then are you willing to pay a lot more money in the long run for the option to refinance?  I can't answer this for you as it really depends on your own situation, but it is definitely something that you need to consider before trying to change the terms on your current loan.

If you’re keeping an eye on mortgage rates lately because you know how incredibly low they were just a few weeks back and you’re hoping to see those rates again… good luck.

Of course no one can say with any absolute certainty where rates will be in a day, a week or a month let alone a year or so from now, but the general agreement among experts and wannabe experts alike is that more likely than not, rates are going up from here.  In addition, no one that I’ve heard of is really expecting to see the rates of a few weeks ago, such as 4.5%, again any time soon.  If at all!

So if you’re on the fence about locking your loan, you probably shouldn’t be.  If you have found a house to buy or you’ve determined that a mortgage refinance makes sense for you, playing with floating and locking is really just gambling.  Lock it and move on.