Refinance Methodology

The current required plan uses the remaining balance, APR, and term with no acceleration. Your current plan additionally includes the recurring extra principal and one-time payments saved across the financial tools. The replacement loan uses the proposed APR and term. Closing costs are added either to the new principal when financed or to the refinance total when paid upfront.

Lifetime savings compares the proposed refinance against the total remaining cost of your currently saved payoff plan. A negative result means the refinance costs more over the modeled remaining life. Required-payment savings remains a separate comparison of the two contractual monthly payments.

Required monthly payment savings is the current contractual payment minus the new contractual payment. When closing costs are paid upfront, the displayed break-even estimate is closing costs divided by positive monthly payment savings, rounded up to a whole month.

When closing costs are financed, there is no initial cash outlay to recover, so the tool reports no upfront break-even. The financed costs and the interest charged on them are already reflected in the new loan's payment and lifetime cost. This remains a simple cash-flow comparison and does not discount future cash flows or model a future sale.