Okay so despite all my research and knowledge about loans that I had gained, I still was wondering if I made the right choice to lock in a 15 year fixed loan at 6.25% today August 30, 2007 with $1733 in closing costs (all in including $33 for buy down). The loan amount was for $100,000.

After agreeing to lock down the rate, I received in the mail a Express Mail envelope from Citibank which offered to beat any offer or pay us $100. It was perfect timing and they somehow must have known that we were shopping for loans - I give them kudos for anticipating such a move and sending out the letter when they did.

Of course I called the agent. I was a bit frustrated from the get go. First of all the number on the letter was for 1-800-Mortgage. No where did it write the numbers - very annoying and something all marketers should realize. Second I had to wait 5 minutes before I got a person who then transferred me to someone else and I had to wait another 5 minutes for the second person. The initial experience did not put me in the best frame of mind to deal with Citibank.

Regardless, since I knew exactly what I wanted it was a relatively easy phone call. I started by mentioning the offer - code 85168-2 and thankfully he knew exactly what the offer referred to. I asked him to give me the best rates for the 15 year fixed. He quoted me the following rates:

15 Yr Fixed: 6.25%

This was exactly what Bank of America had quoted me. Okay, so far so good. But the difference was in the closing costs. Citibank came in at $2457 which is $757 more than
Bank of America was charging.

He did try and make a pitch that I try and refinance the 2nd line as part of this process, that I would pay .75% below prime and incur no annual fees. But this would mean that my term to avoid a $500 pre-payment penalty starts over for another 3 years and more importantly it would mean having to go through underwriting for a fully documented loan. As my conversation with Ditech earlier demonstrated that would be a very hard hurdle to overcome. I didn't want to do anything to jeopardize the $172,000 line of credit and set myself up for failure.

We ended the conversation by him giving me his contact info and where I should send the Bank of America Good Faith Estimate, so that he could either match it or give me the $100 Gift Card per the offer. Stay tuned to see if I can collect on this...