Mortgage payments comprising 65 percent of all consumer debt, according to the Federal Reserve.
To help people plan and budget for owning a home, Mint.com has added a home loans feature to the “Ways to Save” portion of its award-winning tool. The feature looks through thousands of home loan options and compares them to a person’s income, debt ratio and credit worthiness – giving them a customized look at home loan options presented by multiple lenders. Using that information may help them reduce interest rates or lower monthly payments.
“Buying a home is often the biggest purchase someone makes. But the current process for securing a home loan – whether you’re buying a new home or looking to refinance an existing mortgage – is complicated, confusing and time consuming,” said Aaron Patzer, general manager and vice president of Intuit Inc.’s personal finance group and founder of Mint.com. “We’re simplifying personal finance and want to give people a clean and easy way to review options that doesn’t involve hours of research or multiple visits to various financial institutions.”
The Power of a Down Payment and Refinancing
The new feature shows how various factors, such as the size of the down payment or paying points, affect the loan rate and monthly payment. It also helps the 50 percent of Mint.com users who already own a home easily determine whether refinancing makes financial sense by showing them how different loan options might help them reduce their monthly payment or cut their interest rate. Making the right switch can mean significant savings in interest expenses over the life of a mortgage.
Partnered with CreditSesame.com
To create the new feature, Mint worked with CreditSesame.com, an online company that provides bank-level analytics for loan offers to consumers. With information provided by users or otherwise available to Mint.com, the Credit Sesame analytics engine automatically and securely creates a complete financial profile – including current debts, loans, assets and available credit. It then evaluates that profile against thousands of products from lenders and brokers. The result is a targeted and customized list of potentially available loan options.
You can try the new home loans feature for free by visiting www.mint.com and clicking on “Find Savings”. Mint.com users can also access the feature in the “Ways to Save” portion of their account.
