Q: We have been visiting different lenders and mortgage brokers to get a new home loan. Most of them have just been giving us quotes for their 30-year mortgages, but a couple have suggested that we choose a 15-year term instead, because we would save a lot of money in finance charges by paying the loan off in half the usual time. What do you think of 15-year mortgages?

A: Rates on 30-year mortgages are near their all-time lows, but rates on 15-year loans are even lower because they cut a lender’s risk against long-term inflation in half. Choosing a 15-year term would probably be a wise move, provided that its slightly higher monthly payments wouldn’t leave you struggling to meet other expenses.

Many people mistakenly believe that payments on a 15-year loan would be double that of a 30-year mortgage. In reality, payments are usually only about 30 percent higher, because 15-year rates are typically one-quarter to one-half of a percentage point below 30-year rates and the principal amount is paid back much faster.

To illustrate, many lenders have recently been offering 30-year fixed mortgages at 5.9 percent and 15-year loans at 5.4 percent. If you borrowed $150,000, monthly payments on a 30-year plan would be $890. A 15-year payback schedule would require $1,218 – a $328-a-month difference.

Adding an “extra” $328 each month to your mortgage would not only allow you to own your home debt-free in half the usual time, it also would save a ton of money in interest. Finance charges over the course of the 15-year loan would total $69,182, compared to a much steeper $170,294 if you stretched the mortgage out over 30 years.

In other words, choosing the 15-year schedule over a 30-year term would eventually leave you with an extra $101,112 to put a kid through college, supplement your retirement income or spend any other way you wish.

While the benefits of choosing a 15-year mortgage are clear, I’ll again caution that you shouldn’t choose such a plan if its higher monthly payments would leave you strapped for cash to pay other bills. And if you’re a savvy investor, you might want to select a 30-year term if its lower monthly payments would free up more of your money to make promising investments.

Q: My credit is pretty bad, so I went to a free “credit-repair” seminar that was advertised on TV. The seminar basically turned out to be a high-pressure sales pitch to purchase the speaker’s expensive books and tapes. But one suggestion was that I could get a federal “taxpayer identification number” and then use it to apply for credit cards or even a mortgage instead of using my Social Security number. Is this true?

A: Virtually anyone can get a federal taxpayer identification number, or TIN, and then use it to apply for a loan or other types of credit. However, doing so can sometimes get them into trouble.

Most federal TINs are issued to businesses or to immigrants who don’t have a Social Security number. It’s perfectly OK for them to use their TIN for tax-paying or credit-seeking purposes.

You also can get a federal identification number if you already have a Social Security number, but using the TIN to establish credit can push you into some gray areas of the law. For example, it’s illegal to apply for credit with a TIN instead of your Social Security number if you’re simply trying to elude existing creditors or law-enforcement officials. Penalties can include stiff fines or even jail time.

In short, relatively few individuals need to get a TIN – and those who do must be careful how they use it.

Q: If we put the title to our home into the type of simple living trust that you recently wrote about, would we have to notify our future heirs? And after we die, would the contents of the trust become available for public inspection?

A: The answer to both of your questions is “no” – and helps to highlight an often-overlooked benefit that an inexpensive, easy-to-form living trust can provide.

Most homeowners who create a living trust do so because they want to avoid the costly and time-consuming probate process. Nearly all wills must pass through probate, but trusts almost never have to: Instead, the trust’s property usually can be distributed quickly to heirs with little or no involvement by a judge or pricey attorneys.

Your letter, however, raises another key issue that separates a will from a trust. A will usually becomes part of the public record the moment it goes to probate court, which means it can be viewed by virtually anyone after you die. But because a trust is a private document that doesn’t have to go through the court system, its assets won’t automatically be put on display for the prying eyes of nosy neighbors or sue-happy relatives.

– David W. Myers is a 20-year veteran of the newspaper and magazine business, having previously covered real estate for the Los Angeles Times and Investor’s Business Daily.