Quick Overview
The calculator has two modes. Basic Mode lets you quickly compare lender rates and see monthly savings, break-even points, and total interest saved. Advanced Mode adds full PITI analysis (taxes, insurance, PMI, HOA), LTV & PMI evaluation, extra payment impact, and discount points comparison. Start with Basic and switch to Advanced when you want the full picture.
Before You Start — What You'll Need
For Basic Mode:
- Your current outstanding loan balance (not your original loan amount)
- Your current interest rate
- How many months remain on your current loan
- At least one lender quote: the offered rate, loan term, and closing cost estimate
Additional items for Advanced Mode:
- Current home value (for LTV and PMI calculations)
- Annual property tax amount
- Annual homeowner's insurance premium
- Monthly PMI amount (if you currently pay it; enter 0 if not)
- Monthly HOA fee (if applicable; enter 0 if not)
- Extra monthly payment amount (optional — for payoff acceleration analysis)
You can find your current balance, rate, and remaining term on your most recent mortgage statement or by calling your servicer.
Choose a Mode (Basic or Advanced)
The two large buttons at the top of the calculator ("Basic Mode" and "Advanced Mode") control which fields appear.
- Basic Mode — shows the core inputs: loan balance, rate, remaining term, and lender fields. Best for a quick rate comparison.
- Advanced Mode — adds a second panel with home value, taxes, insurance, PMI, HOA, and extra payment. Best for understanding your total housing cost and PMI situation.
You can switch between modes at any time; your previously entered values are preserved.
Enter Your Current Loan Details
Fill in the three fields in the "Your Current Loan" section:
- Current Loan Balance ($) — your current outstanding principal balance. This is the amount you still owe, not your original loan amount. Find it on your mortgage statement.
- Current Interest Rate (%) — the annual interest rate on your current mortgage (e.g., enter 6.75 for 6.75%).
- Remaining Term — how much time is left on your loan. You can enter years and months separately, or just months. For example, 22 years and 4 months remaining = enter 22 years and 4 months, or just 268 months.
Advanced Mode — Enter Property & Payment Details
When Advanced Mode is selected, a second panel appears. These fields are optional (you can leave them at 0) but unlocking them gives you significantly richer analysis:
- Current Home Value ($) — used to calculate your loan-to-value ratio (LTV) and determine whether PMI is required on the new loan. If your LTV is 80% or below (balance ÷ value ≤ 0.80), the calculator flags that PMI is not required — and shows you if refinancing eliminates your current PMI.
- Annual Property Tax ($) — your current annual property tax bill. Used to build the full PITI monthly payment.
- Annual Homeowner's Insurance ($) — your current annual insurance premium. Also used in PITI calculation.
- Monthly PMI ($) — if you currently pay private mortgage insurance, enter the monthly amount. If you don't pay PMI, leave this at 0.
- Monthly HOA Fee ($) — if you have a homeowner's association fee, enter it here. Leave at 0 if not applicable.
- Extra Monthly Payment ($) — if you plan to pay extra each month beyond the required payment, enter that amount here. The calculator will show how many months you'd save and how much interest you'd avoid on each lender's loan.
Add Lender Offers
Click "+ Add Another Lender" to add up to five lender quotes. For each lender, enter:
- Lender Name — optional label to help you identify the offer (e.g., "Chase 30yr" or "Local CU 15yr").
- Offered Rate (%) — the interest rate this lender is quoting you for the new loan.
- Loan Term — enter the term in years and/or months. Common terms are 30 years, 20 years, or 15 years. You can enter any term (e.g., 17 years 6 months).
- Closing Costs ($) — two options:
- Auto-estimate (default) — the calculator uses national average closing cost percentages based on your loan balance. This is a reasonable starting point if you don't have a formal quote yet.
- Enter manually — toggle off auto-estimate and type the dollar amount from your Loan Estimate or lender quote. Use this for more accurate results once you have real numbers.
- Discount Points (Advanced Mode) — if the lender's quoted rate includes points, enter the number of points and their dollar cost. The Points Analysis section will then show you break-even comparisons for 0 through 3 points.
Run the Analysis
Once your current loan and at least one lender are filled in, click the "Analyze Refinancing Options" button. The calculator sends your inputs to the server, runs all calculations, and displays the results below the form.
If any required fields are missing or out of range, error messages appear beneath the relevant fields. Correct them and click the button again.
Reading the Results
Verdict badges appear on each lender card and in the summary table:
- Excellent — break-even is reached within 18 months and net savings are positive. Strongly worth considering.
- Good — break-even is 19–36 months. Good deal if you plan to stay that long.
- Consider — break-even is over 36 months, or net lifetime savings are modest. Worth a closer look based on your timeline.
- Poor — net lifetime savings are negative, or break-even exceeds your remaining term. You'd spend more refinancing than staying put.
Key metrics on each lender card:
- New Monthly Payment — your estimated principal + interest payment on the new loan.
- Monthly Savings — difference between your current P&I payment and the new payment. Negative means the new payment is higher (common with shorter-term loans).
- Break-Even — months until your accumulated monthly savings equal your upfront closing costs. "N/A — Higher Payment" appears when the new monthly payment exceeds the current one (a shorter term loan). This isn't bad — it means the comparison shifts to total interest saved over the loan life.
- Total Interest Saved — total interest paid over the full current remaining term minus total interest on the new loan.
- Net Lifetime Savings — total cost of staying with the current loan minus total cost of the new loan (including closing costs). The most important single number for comparing options with different terms.
The Side-by-Side Comparison Table
The comparison table shows all key metrics for your current loan and every lender offer in a single view, making it easy to spot differences at a glance. The best offer (highest net lifetime savings among positive-savings options) is highlighted in green.
In Advanced Mode, the table also shows:
- LTV (Loan-to-Value) — your balance as a percentage of home value. Green = 80% or below (no PMI required). Red = above 80% (PMI continues).
- Monthly PMI — shows $0.00 when refinancing eliminates your PMI, with a "PMI removed" flag.
- PITI Payment — full monthly housing cost including principal, interest, taxes, insurance, PMI, and HOA.
The Break-Even Analysis Section
Below the summary cards, the Break-Even Analysis section shows a horizontal bar chart with each lender's break-even point plotted against your remaining loan term (shown as a vertical dashed line).
- Bars that stop well before the remaining-term line indicate lenders where you'll recoup costs quickly — good if you might sell or refinance again.
- Bars that extend past the remaining-term line (or are flagged "Exceeds remaining term") mean you'd never break even — the upfront cost isn't recovered before the loan ends.
- A gray bar labeled "N/A — Higher Payment" means that lender's monthly payment is higher than your current one (typically a shorter-term loan). Break-even doesn't apply because you're paying more each month — evaluate these lenders by total interest saved instead.
The Amortization Chart
The line chart shows how your remaining loan balance decreases over time for your current loan and each new loan option. The x-axis is years, and the y-axis is the outstanding balance.
- A line that drops steeply and ends sooner represents a shorter-term loan — you pay it off faster but with higher monthly payments.
- Lines that converge or cross show points where one loan option results in a lower balance than another — useful for understanding how quickly you'd build equity.
- Hover or tap on the chart to see exact balance values for each year.
Click the legend labels to show or hide individual loan lines.
PITI Analysis (Advanced Mode)
The PITI section compares your full monthly housing cost — not just the mortgage payment — for your current loan and each refinance option. PITI stands for Principal, Interest, Taxes, and Insurance.
This section is especially useful when refinancing might eliminate PMI. If your current loan-to-value ratio is above 80% but you've been paying down the balance, refinancing might push your LTV below 80%, dropping your PMI requirement entirely. The PITI section shows exactly how much the total housing cost changes in that scenario.
- PMI Removed badge — appears when the new loan's LTV is ≤ 80% and you were previously paying PMI. Represents pure monthly savings with no downside.
- PMI Required warning — appears when the new loan's LTV remains above 80%. Indicates PMI will continue on the new loan.
- PITI Break-Even — similar to the standard break-even, but uses your PITI savings (which may be larger if PMI is eliminated) to recalculate how quickly you recover closing costs.
Extra Payment Analysis (Advanced Mode)
If you entered an extra monthly payment amount in the Advanced panel, this section shows how that extra payment affects each lender's loan:
- Months saved — how many months earlier you'd pay off the loan compared to making only the required payment.
- Interest saved — total interest avoided by making the extra payment.
For example, if a lender offers a 30-year loan at 6.5% and you add $200/month, this section might show you'd pay off in 24 years and 3 months instead of 30, saving $47,000 in interest. This helps you see whether a 30-year loan with extra payments beats a 15-year loan with a fixed higher payment.
Discount Points Analysis (Advanced Mode)
This section appears for each lender and shows a table comparing six discount point scenarios: 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, and 3 points. For each scenario it shows:
- Adjusted rate — the rate after buying down with points (each point typically reduces rate by ~0.25%)
- Total closing costs — your entered closing cost plus the point cost
- Monthly payment — the new payment at the reduced rate
- Break-even — how many months to recoup the extra upfront cost
- Net savings — lifetime savings compared to keeping your current loan
Use this table to decide whether paying points for a lower rate makes sense for your expected timeline. If you plan to stay 5+ years, more points often make sense. If you might move in 2–3 years, fewer (or no) points are usually better.
Frequently Asked Questions
What loan balance should I enter — my original loan amount or current balance?
Enter your current outstanding balance — the amount you still owe right now. Your mortgage statement or servicer's online portal will show this. Do not enter the original loan amount or your home's value.
How do I find my remaining term?
Your mortgage statement usually shows your maturity date. Count the months from today to that date. For example, if your loan matures in March 2048 and today is April 2026, that's about 263 months. You can also enter it as years and months (22 years 11 months) and the calculator converts automatically.
Why does my break-even show "N/A — Higher Payment" instead of a number?
This happens when the lender's new monthly payment is higher than your current payment — most commonly when you're comparing a shorter loan term (e.g., refinancing from a 30-year to a 15-year). Since your monthly cost goes up, there's no monthly "savings" to recover the closing costs. This doesn't mean the loan is a bad deal — it means you should evaluate it by Total Interest Saved and Net Lifetime Savings instead. A 15-year loan typically saves tens of thousands in interest even though each month costs more.
What's the difference between the interest rate and APR?
The interest rate determines your monthly payment calculation. The APR (annual percentage rate) is a broader measure that includes lender fees, making it higher than the rate. This calculator uses the interest rate for payment calculations, and handles fees separately as closing costs. When comparing lenders, use APR for an apples-to-apples rate comparison; then enter closing costs separately here for the most accurate break-even analysis.
Should I include discount points in closing costs or in the separate points fields?
If you're entering a lender quote where the rate already reflects purchased discount points, enter those points in the Discount Points field (in Advanced Mode) with their dollar cost. If you're entering a no-points rate and want to model buying down the rate, use the Discount Points Analysis section that appears automatically in Advanced Mode. If you're in Basic Mode, you can simply include point costs in the closing cost total.
Why does my net lifetime savings show a negative number?
Negative net savings means you'd spend more over the life of the new loan (including closing costs) than you would staying with your current loan. This can happen when the new rate isn't low enough to offset closing costs within the remaining term, or when the new loan is longer than your remaining term (extending your payoff date adds more total payments). In this case, the verdict will show as "Poor."
How accurate are the closing cost auto-estimates?
The auto-estimates use national average percentages (origination: 1%, appraisal: $450, title search: 0.2%, title insurance: 0.3%, recording fees: $175, credit report: $35, prepaid interest: 2 months, misc: $400). Actual costs vary significantly by state, lender, and loan size — sometimes 40–60% higher or lower. Once you have a real Loan Estimate from a lender, always switch to manual entry for the most accurate results.
Does this calculator handle cash-out refinancing?
This calculator is designed for rate-and-term refinancing (replacing your current loan with a new one at a different rate or term, without taking cash out). For a cash-out refinance, enter the new, higher loan amount you'd be borrowing as the loan balance, but be aware that the "savings" comparison will be less meaningful since you're changing the loan principal.
Educational purposes only. All results are estimates based on your inputs and use simplified financial models. They do not constitute financial, legal, or mortgage advice. Actual loan terms, rates, and costs will vary. Always consult a licensed mortgage professional before making refinancing decisions.
RefinanceCalculator.site is not a mortgage lender, broker, or financial institution.