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Mortgage Recast vs. Refinance Calculator

See if you should pay $300 to recast your mortgage, or $4,000 to completely refinance it after receiving a lump sum.

Don't pay a bank $5,000 in loan origination fees if you don't have to. You might just need a Recast.

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The Best Kept Secret in Mortgages

If you acquired a lump sum of cash (an inheritance, a massive commission check, or selling a previous home), applying it to your mortgage principal is great. But simply applying it won’t lower your required monthly payment—it just shortens the loan.

To lower your required monthly payment, you must Recast or Refinance.

How it’s used

Input your current mortgage details alongside the lump sum of cash you intend to inject into the principal. Then, input the current market interest rate for a refinance, accounting for those heavy bank closing fees.

Why it matters

If you currently hold a favorable interest rate, a recast is a superpower. You pay a negligible administrative fee, keep your amazing rate, and immediately drop your monthly payment footprint. If current market rates are actually lower than your existing mortgage, refinancing might make sense—but this calculator proves mathematically whether the interest savings actually outpace the harsh closing costs.

Frequently Asked Questions

If you pay a large lump sum toward your principal, some lenders allow you to 'recast' the loan for a small fee (usually $250). It recalculates your monthly payment based on the new, much lower principal balance while keeping your existing interest rate and payoff date the exact same.
Refinancing completely replaces your old loan with a new one. This means paying massive closing costs (2-5% of the loan value) and resetting the 30-year amortization clock, meaning your initial payments go primarily toward interest again.

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