If you are not "seasoned" (6 mos.) in your current mortgage, some lenders will not refinance. (You may also have a prepayment penalty if you are refinancing short of the Note Terms depending on the type of loan that you have). But, typically refinancing does not hurt your credit score. You do have to qualify for the refinance and that includes appraisal. So, if your equity has been squashed, as most peoples's has, it may not be worth refinancing. The cost of the loan and the PMI insurance if your equity is less than 20% of the value. The rule of thumb says that you need a 2 percentage point reduction in the interest rate to make the cost worth it.
Are you foreseeing problems with your payment? You may want to look into a mortgage modification to ammend the terms of your note. In this case, you may have to miss a payment and that hurts your credit score. - Thu Nov 27 2008, 06:07