[berettafan]

rick & christien i hear you guys. as i said part of me agrees with that, but still a big part of me has a problem with dangling large cash disbursements in front of homeowners as a way to further eat into their equity. i have to think the board meeting where this strategy was introduced went something like 'homeowners still have lots of equity in their homes and are not afraid to use it. perhaps we could not only get the equity credit business but get the darn fools into a higher rate mortgage at the same time!'.

rick i suspect the poor folks out there kidding themselves about doing a refi when their ARMS get out of control (what do you think fixed rates will be doing at the same time? going down? i think not....) are not the target of this practice but rather folks who are happily settled in with fixed rates. there is a LOT more to be gained by getting me to refi at current rates vs. getting somebody with an ARM to do so. if rates keep trending up the ARM folks will be paying the highest rates of all so why get them settled in now? that would just limit the upside for the banks.