New rate · Closing costs · The honest payback date
A lower payment is not a cheaper loan. Enter the offer on the table. The ledger counts only what leaves you poorer: interest and fees. It finds the month your closing costs are truly repaid, what restarting the clock quietly costs, and the one move that takes the rate without the stretch.
The ledger correction
Enter your loan and the offer you’re weighing to see the correction.
Row 3 is a plan, not just a row: sign at 5.5%, keep sending the old $2,528.27, and the $225.10 gap quietly prepays the new loan. Debt-free Nov 2050, keeping $172,662. Open it as its own payoff plan.
Not sold on a new loan? The payoff calculator shows what plain extra principal does to the loan you already have, or set a target month on debt-free by date. Your loan carries over.
All the math runs in your browser; nothing you enter is stored or sent anywhere. Last updated July 2026.
One new loan, three ledgers. The rate does the saving; the payment you choose to send decides how much of it you keep.
| Strategy | Monthly payment | Payoff | Interest + costs after closing | Saved vs keeping |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keep the loanno costs, no new paperwork | … | … | … | … |
| Refinance, pay the new minimumthe offer as advertised | …Lowest payment | … | … | … |
| Refinance, keep your old paymentsame bill as today, new rate underneath | … | … | … | …Most saved |
A payment is not a cost. Every payment splits into interest (spent, gone) and principal, which is still yours as equity. This page’s break-even and every “saved” figure count only the spent part, plus what you paid to close.
Same offer, three moves. Dollar figures use the example: the $400,000 at 6.5% / 30-year loan, one year in ($395,529 owed), refinanced at 5.5% for 30 years with $6,000 of costs rolled in. Run your own numbers above.
Take the 5.5%. Keep sending the $2,528.27 you already pay, as if nothing happened. Your bill does not change, but the loan now ends Apr 2051, 5 yrs 3 mos sooner than the one it replaced, and you keep $160,199 more. The lower minimum waits underneath: a floor of $2,279.84 you can drop to in any hard month, no permission needed. The rate is the prize. The restart is optional.
Strategy #1 only works if you actually keep sending the money. A 15-year at the same 5.5% removes the choice: the minimum itself becomes $3,280.83 (+$752.56 a month), the loan ends Jul 2042, and the ledger keeps $289,290 versus riding out the old loan. Fifteen-year money also usually prices below thirty-year money, so the real offer may beat this example. The catch is the catch: that higher minimum is mandatory in your worst month too.
Sometimes the bill is the emergency: one income now, a rate that never should have happened, a budget that needs $248.43 back every month. Taking the new minimum still beats doing nothing ($59,097 saved over the run), and the costs are honestly repaid by Mar 2029. Just sign knowing the full price: the clock restarts (Jul 2056 → Jul 2057), and the relief hands back $101,102 of what strategy #1 would have kept. Relief is a fine purchase, at a known price.
Every tool inherits what you type here. Nothing to re-enter, nothing stored. Dollar figures are the example loan: $400,000 at 6.5% over 30 years.
Make your plan
Payoff calculator
Add $200 a month and watch $111,892 of interest die. Lump sums and milestones too.
Amortization schedule
Every payment, split into interest and principal. $200 a month deletes 67 rows.
Debt-free by date
Pick the month; it finds the smallest extra that gets there. Twenty years costs $454.03 a month.
Before retirement
Paid off at 65 instead of 71 costs $221.89 a month. Priced in birthdays, not dates.
Weigh your options
Prepay vs invest
The market has to beat your mortgage rate after tax. Both roads run to the cent.
Bi-weekly payments
Half-payments every two weeks finish 5 years 10 months sooner. The paid programs get priced too.
Recast
A $50,000 lump can cut the payment $319.60 a month. The lower payment’s price: $137,661.
RefinanceYou are here
The advertised break-even says 25 payments. The honest ledger says 20. You see both.
Today’s numbers
Payoff amount
The statement says $395,529.10. The check that clears the loan says $396,515.26.
PMI removal
Asking at 80% instead of waiting for 78% keeps $2,805. Both dates, dated.
The advertised way: closing costs divided by the monthly payment drop. On the example loan that’s $6,000 ÷ $248.43, call it 25 payments. The honest way counts costs, not payments. Each month the old loan charges more interest than the new one ($2,142 versus $1,840 in month one). The break-even is the month those savings add up to the closing costs: here, 20 payments. The two disagree because a payment is not a cost. Part of every payment is principal you keep either way.
Count the money the refinance itself consumes: origination and underwriting fees, discount points, appraisal, title work, recording. That is roughly sections A through C of the Loan Estimate. Leave out escrow prefunds and per-diem interest; you owe those under either loan, so they cannot tip the comparison. Typical all-in costs run 2 to 6% of the balance; if your quote is far outside that, ask which line items are actually new.
No. You pay it differently. The lender covers the fees and charges a higher rate, so you pay in interest, forever, instead of in cash, once. Set closing costs to $0 here and the break-even honestly reads “day one.” The catch: the rate you type must be the no-cost rate, which is higher than the paid-costs rate on the same sheet. Run both offers and compare their ledgers: over a long stay, paid costs usually win; over a short one, the credit does.
Rolling them in means borrowing the fee at the new rate for the life of the loan. On the example, financing the $6,000 pushes the break-even from 19 payments to 20 and adds $6,265 of interest over a full term. That is real but modest. If the cash would sit idle, pay at closing; it is cheaper. If the cash has better work to do (higher-rate debt, an empty emergency fund), rolling in is a fair price for keeping it. This page charges for either choice automatically.
The restart is a choice, not a consequence. Take the example offer and pay its minimum to term: the payoff slides from Jul 2056 to Jul 2057 and the ledger keeps $59,097. Take the same offer and keep sending your old $2,528.27: debt-free Apr 2051, five years earlier than the loan you left, keeping $160,199. The rate cut does the saving; the stretched term only decides how much of it leaks back out. Refinance for the rate, then set your own payment.
When the rate drop is small, the stay is short, or the quote is fat. Drop the example to a quarter-point cut (6.25%) and the advertised formula still chirps “nine years to break even.” The ledger says the costs are not truly recovered until Apr 2041. Ride the new loan to term and the win unravels entirely: you end $10,183 behind the loan you left. Sell before the payback month and the costs were never recovered at all. Small cut, short horizon, or a payment-focused pitch: keep the loan and prepay instead.