Should I Pay Points For A Lower Rate?
Paying points for a lower interest rate is a trade off between paying money now versus paying money later. A point - equaling 1% of the total loan amount - is an upfront fee that reduces your monthly interest rate and total interest due over the life of a loan. Use our calculator to figure out the cost and effective saving of loan points as well as the minimum amount of time it will take to recover your loan points.
Popular Mortgage Questions
Popular Mortgage Glossary Terms
The number of months for which the initial interest rate holds on an ARM. ...
Rates and points quoted by loan providers. You cannot safely assume that mortgage price quotes are always timely, niche-adjusted, complete, or reliable. Timeliness: Most mortgage lenders ...
Authorization by the lender for the borrower to pay taxes and insurance directly. This is in contrast to the standard procedure, where the lender adds a charge to the monthly mortgage ...
A mortgage on which interest is calculated daily based on the balance on the day of payment, rather than monthly, as on the standard mortgage. ...
On an ARM, the assumption that the interest rate rises to the maximum extent permitted by the loan contract. ...
The house in which the borrower will live most of the time, as distinct from a second home or an investor property that will be rented. ...
A mortgage on which half the monthly payment is paid twice a month. It should be called a 'semi-monthly mortgage' but market practice often trumps logic. In contrast to a biweekly, a ...
A mortgage loan for 125% of property value. Since such loans are only partly secured, they have many of the characteristics of unsecured loans, including relatively high interest rates. ...
Fees assessed by lenders when payments are late. Late fees are usually 4% or 5% of the payment. A borrower with a 6% mortgage for 30 years who pays a 5% late charge every month raises his ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.