How old is your mortgage? If you took out your mortgage more than a couple of years ago, it may be a good idea to consider refinancing the loan. As house prices continue to rise you may be able to get a considerably better rate. Your mortgage rate will depend on many factors such as the value of your home, your income, your credit score and prevailing interest rates in the economy in general.

The fact is that many of these factors will have changed for most people since they took out their mortgage. Across the country, house prices have continued to rise at a good rate. Almost everyone's house is worth more today than it was when he or she bought it. Add to this the fact that your income may have increased significantly in the last couple of years. It's not something that's guaranteed for anyone, but if your income has increased significantly over the last couple of years, then that may be something that would affect the terms of a mortgage. If you've been on time with loan and other credit repayments, have had a steady job and been living in the same address for quite a while, your credit score will also be getting better and better. And the biggest factor of all, prevailing interest rates, will work in favour of many people.

Rates

If you have a variable rate mortgage, then it will fluctuate up and down with interest rates. However, if your interest rate is fixed, it could well be the rate it was fixed at was higher than the rates available today. Current interest rates are still very good, and there are a lot of mortgages out there that were fixed at rates significantly higher than those lenders are selling at the moment.

If some of these factors sound familiar to you and your situation, you may want to consider refinancing your home. What this basically means is taking out a new mortgage at more preferable terms and using it to repay the old mortgage. There will be fees involved. The re-financer will charge you a fee for arranging the loan, and there may be early repayment fees on your existing mortgage so you will wish to check these out before you proceed. However, the savings can be far greater than such fees. Many people can get well over a full percentage point off their mortgage and the savings this can result in can be hundreds of dollars a month. The fees for refinancing can be paid off with just a couple of month's savings. Then all you're left with is a lower mortgage repayment. It's definitely something worth considering.