As far as I can see, the “Making Home Affordable Refinancing Program or HAMP, is intended to allow mortgage holders to refinance their mortgage by missing several payments or only paying a portion of the balance to bring the mortgage to a near default stage. Once these homeowners are in that magical near default stage, the lenders, by way of the Making Home Affordable Refinancing Program are highly encourage by Obama’s new policies to refinance at a much lower rate. The result is a very lower interest rate reward for the homeowner. 
Despite a bad taste in my mouth for the idea, the program can get you into a better interest rate and a lower monthly payment. So everything is great then right? Not so fast. If you suspected that this may have other consequences you are correct. A late mortgage payment is a giant problem for your credit. A mortgage payment is usually the biggest influence on a person’s credit so poor payment history will be on your credit for quite a while. I have seen people that had otherwise perfect credit that have used this program and ruined their chances of getting decent financing. If you are planning on getting a car loan or any other type of financing, you might consider either avoiding this altogether or waiting until you’ve got those purchases out of the way.
At the current pace, with derogatory items falling off credit after seven to ten years, you can recover from, just about any credit problem. Please use caution before you do anything that can be this devastating. If you have already done this or are in the middle of this process their is still hope. Don’t get carried away and default on other items. Being behind on your mortgage is a big deal so you will need to talk to someone with the right skills to get a loan for a car. If you are in need of a vehicle, look to a dealer who has a special finance manager. Once you are linked up with a special finance manager, let them know everything you know about the situation; be prepared with mortgage statements that go back to before you started the process, make sure these have balance, last paid, next due, and your name on them. Keep ALL of your paperwork handy just in case.
