Miles for Mortgages
I think I might actually finally buy a house and I thought many programs used to have bonus miles for getting a mortgage on Lending Tree.
When I check out Delta’s Financial partners I don’t see anything about mortgages.
Chase does have a program with United, but I’d be just a couple thousand under the threshold to move up to 25,000 miles and it’s not worth a couple thousand to bump up and Chase doesn’t have a good enough rate to justify 12,500 miles.
I don’t do a lot with American, but I do see that Wells Fargo offers American Miles, but it mentions closing online. I did apply online, but my application was sent to a retail branch so I wonder if meeting with that lady will disqualify me. Also, I didn’t check into American before I applied so according to the WF terms I would not be eligible for miles (and they may not have passed me onto the retail branch). I’m most likely doing a short sale so I think it will be easier if I have someone local who can close I’m not the one holding it up at all.
Is there a program I’m missing that does FHA loans? I’m starting to think that a mortgage is like Lasik…you shouldn’t choose a provider based on who gives miles, but who meets your needs the most.
DON’T DO IT!
Check the rates you’re getting and talk to some mortgage brokers before you commit. You’ll likely find that the cash cost over time of those points is huge relative to getting a better rate.
What Seth said…
I’ve done 4 refis with Wells Fargo with AA miles. All were competitive, and even so, only the last one really mattered.
My wife and I just bought a house (we closed 2 weeks ago) and the rates available through brokers that we could earn points on were drastically higher than what we could find w/o earning miles. In the end we found a sub-4%, 30 year fixed rate with 20% down that we are ecstatic with.