Mortgage Refinance and Option Pricing
Being a blogger with a contact form, I often receive PR outreach messages. They want me to write about what they are trying to promote. I ignore most of those. Once in a while, I get something worth reading.
Andrew Kalotay Associates is a fixed income analytics and debt management advisory services company in New York. They sent me a special report they wrote for Mortgage Bankers Association, the industry trade group.
A Financial Analysis of Consumer Mortgage Decisions, Andrew J. Kalotay and Qi Fu
0% APR, Same As Cash, and No Interest No Payments
Do you know the difference between "0% APR for 12 months" and "12 months same as cash"? What about "no interest, no payments for 12 months"? If you are offered all three payment plans, which one do you prefer?
If you pay off the balance within 12 months, all three work pretty much the same. You basically have an interest-free loan for 12 months. Things start getting interesting (pun intended) when the 12 months end.
The 0% APR deal is usually used by credit card companies for balance transfers or purchases on a new credit card. During the promotion period, you are required to pay minimum payments, say 2% of your outstanding balance. After the promotion ends, if you still owe a balance, you start paying interest on that balance at the regular credit card rate.
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