Electricity is one thing that is not cheap in the Philippines. Meralco customers in Manila are reporting huge increases in their latest April 2010 electric bills. Like increases to P13.25 ($0.294) per kWh.
PMI is not a cost you have to pay for throughout the life of your loan. You can eventually cancel private mortgage insurance, once your principal balance drops to 80% or less of your home's original purchase price or the amount you financed in a refinance loan. This reduces the size of the loan that you can use for the home purchase or the size of the refi loan that you qualify for. 2  It is not tax deductible, unlike the interest that you pay on the money you borrow to buy a home or to finance a refinance loan on a traditional mortgage.
The first is that your existing mortgage may have a prepayment penalty, particularly if you took it out less than one year ago. If your current mortgage was a no cost mortgage or refinance, you'll probably have a prepayment penalty if you refinance within less than three to five years.Prepayment penalties can be steep-often equal to six month's interest charges on your current mortgage.he general rule of thumb is that you don't refinance unless you can save at least a full percentage point off your current interest rate. In reality, however, the key question is whether you can reduce your interest rate enough to offset your closing costs-and that depends on how long you plan to stay in the home.