For most homeowners, a mortgage is their biggest monthly expense. Yet according to a recent survey by Bankrate.com, 35 percent of 1,000 adults sampled could not readily identify their mortgage interest rate.
The good part is that most borrowers do know their general range, with approximately a half- to quarter-percentage point variance. Those who took their loans out within the past five years tend to be closer. Still, when it comes to opportunities like refinancing at low levels — a trend swaths of homeowners are taking advantage of while millions of others are missing out — knowing a general range typically isn’t good enough to make an informed decision.
It’s true that buying a home can be stressful, and at the end of the day the focus might be more on finishing the process and simply knowing what your monthly payment is going to be rather than what rate you hold. But if you fall in the one-third of Americans who do not know their rate, I encourage you to dig up your lending paperwork or contact your lender to find out. Beyond that, set a reminder to stay up-to-date on current rates. We have had some historically low ones as of late and many predictions suggest that mortgage interest rates will stay fairly low through 2015. If this is the case, you could be leaving a lot of money on the table.
