Finally compared an online calculator against a broker's numbers and the difference was huge

I've been shopping around for a refi on my place in Austin. Used one of those Bankrate calculators last week to get a rough idea. It said I'd save about $150 a month. Then I actually sat down with a broker named Diane at a local credit union. She ran my real numbers, credit score, everything. Her quote came out to $220 a month in savings. Turns out the online tool was using some generic rate that didn't apply to my loan size. Made me wonder if anyone else has found a big gap between what the online tools say and what you get from a real person?

3 comments

3 Comments

drews5515d ago

Did Diane happen to mention if she moonlighted as a magician? Because that's quite the disappearing act on those savings. I plugged my numbers into three different online calculators last month and got three different monthly payments (all wrong, naturally). The real kicker was when I asked one site why their rate was so much lower than a local bank and it just gave me a generic "sorry, we can't guarantee accuracy" popup.

corap6115d ago

Honestly, that "sorry we can't guarantee accuracy" thing is wild. I read somewhere that those calculators are basically just fancy ads, they're designed to make you sign up for their newsletter or whatever, not to give you real numbers.

dylan_ward13d ago

Ngl I'm kinda with the calculators on this one, rates change every day.