@#$% Beneficial Finance

We've been trying to refinance our house. We currently have our mortgage through Beneficial Finance, and our interest rate is fairly high.

(Why is our interest rate high? Well, in 2001 we bought a house in Cartersville, Georgia. I was pastoring a church there. The church split, and I got fired. We moved back to Texas, to Waco, and I finished my Ph.D.

But we still owned the house. So we rented it for a couple of years. Everything was fine, until the renters moved out without telling us. Actually, they told the property management company, but the managers just didn't tell ME--but that's another post.

So we were left trying to make two house payments, and were not able to keep that particular arrangement up. So our credit rating was damaged, and it's taken us four years to rebuild it. Anyway: that's why our interest rate was bad, and why we qualify for a much better rate today.)

So we've been trying to refinance. We've gone through all the dance steps, etc., and everything is set up for our refi. EXCEPT--and I just found this out today--we have a prepayment penalty of $7,500 if we refinance before September.

SEPTEMBER.

Which completely screws everything up, I think.

Dang Beneficial. When we signed the papers on this mortgage, they told us, "You can refinance it in a year, and bring the interest rate down." That's what they said.

But what they meant was, "You can refinance this in a year or two as long as you refinance it with us, and no body else."