Mortgage Refinance Calculator

Should You Refinance Your Mortgage?

Use our mortgage refinance calculator to find out whether refinancing your mortgage makes sense for you. Refinancing your mortgage can generate significant interest savings, but it costs money up front.

Mortgage Refinance Caculator

Step 1: Tell us about your existing loan

Step 2: What type of loan and rate are you looking for?

Step 3: Let’s evaluate your results

00

After considering upfront costs of 00

Let’s break it down:

Current New Difference
Monthly Payment
0 0 = 0
Loan Balance
0 0 = 0
Total Interest
0 0 = 0
Upfront Cost
$0 0 = 0
Total
0 0 = 0

Next steps: Find the best rate that works for you

Check Rates

Information and interactive calculators are made available to you as self-help tools for your independent use and are not intended to provide investment advice. We cannot and do not guarantee their applicability or accuracy in regards to your individual circumstances. All examples are hypothetical and are for illustrative purposes. We encourage you to seek personalized advice from qualified professionals regarding all personal finance issues.

How to use a mortgage calculator

While the term is “mortgage calculator,” you can actually use this type of calculator to assist in a number of mortgage-related decisions, including whether a mortgage refinance would be right for you. To use a mortgage refinance calculator, you’ll need to know a few general pieces of information about your property and loan, including the amount of your original mortgage, your original term, current interest rate, and origination year.

You’ll also want to have an idea of your new interest rate for the refinance, though you can plug in different rates to see what your savings would be if you’re just starting to shop around for refinance rates. Try to come up with a rough estimate of what your closing costs will be for the refinance, too — having that number will give you a better idea of whether your refinance makes sense when you plug in the numbers.

Note: Don’t forget about closing costs. These impact your overall monthly and total interest savings. If you don’t know the exact amount, an estimate of 2%-6% of your refinance loan amount will give you an idea.

Once you have that information on hand, all you have to do is plug it into the calculator and the calculator will give you an idea of how much you’ll save on interest with the new loan over the life of the loan. It will also give you an idea of how much your monthly payments will decrease with the refinance. These two figures should help you decide whether the refinance makes fiscal sense for your needs.

When to refinance your mortgage

The answer to when you should refinance your mortgage is a tricky one — there is no catch-all answer. Whether you should refinance will ultimately depend on your personal situation — people refinance loans for a number of reasons, including a longer or shorter term or a lower interest rate — but there are a few rules you can use to help you decide.

Tip: Only consider refinancing if the new interest rate is at least 1 point lower than your current interest rate.

The first is that you should only consider refinancing if the new interest rate is at least 1 point lower than your current interest rate. You’ll be paying closing costs on the new loan — which can be between 2% and 6% of the home’s principal, along with fees for title searches, appraisals and other miscellaneous things — so anything less than 1 point lower may not be worth the extra closing costs on the new loan.

Closing costs also play into the second rule, which is that you should only consider refinancing if you have plans to stay in your home for more than 5 years. Anything less may negate the interest savings and cost you more than it’s worth in closing costs for the new loan. So, if there’s a chance you’re going to move soon, you may want to seriously consider whether the refinance costs will be worth it.

Ultimately, though, there are plenty of cases where refinances make sense even if they don’t save you a full point on your rate or if you’re planning to move sooner rather than later. It will all depend on why you’re refinancing and what you hope to get out of it.

How to refinance your mortgage

There are a number of ways to refinance your mortgage, but the most important step is to get prequalified with a lender. Doing this will not only help you to know whether you meet the basic requirements of the lender but will also give you an idea of your potential interest rates for the refinance. If you have an idea of your rates, you can plug that information into the mortgage refinance calculator and see for yourself how much you stand to save.

Make sure to shop around for lenders, too — you may be given different rates by different lenders, which could mean the difference between refinancing at a lower rate and sticking with your current loan. Be sure to check with your current lender, too — they have an incentive to keep you as a customer, so it’s worth seeing whether the current lender will offer you a lower rate than a new lender would.

Once you’re prequalified, the refi loan process will follow similar steps as the original loan process did. You’ll likely need to get another appraisal and will go through the closing process again, too.

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