Mortgage Refinancing - Mortgage Calculator - Mortgage

Mortgage
Mortgage refinancing is the method of replacing a mortgage with some other financing. Often, this involves acquiring the necessary financing from some other financial institution at better terms than the current. But mortgage refinancing can also mean getting a new loan from the same financial institution at better terms.

In general, the purpose of refinancing a mortgage is to lower the cost of it.

Interest rates, as you know, change all the time. If you hold a mortgage with a higher interest rate and the interest rate changes and becomes lower, a refinancing might become favorable. Small interest changes can often mean large savings if an effective refinancing can be made.
Changing values of property

One interesting situation arise if your property has gained in value and you have a combination of mortgages at different interest levels. Typically, the more you borrow the higher the interest rates will be at "the top" of the value. For example, you might get up to 85% of the value at 5% interest rate but eveything you borrow above that will be at a higher interest rate.

Now imagine that your property has gained in value over the last couple of years and that you when you bought it borrowed let's say up to 90% of it's value. Since the property has now got a higher valuation, it is likely that your full mortgage falls below the 85% that carries the lower interest rate. So what you could do is go to your financial institution and ask them if you can refinance the part that was earlier above 85% since your full mortgage is now entirely below 85%.

Early payoff penalty
If the mortgage you wish to refinance is fixed, there might be an early payoff penalty. This varies with different financial institutions and mortages so it has to be checked for each situation. Still though, even when an early payoff penalty is considered it might be worth to refinance.

In some cases, though this might not be the case in your country or with your financial institution, the institution that refinances your mortgage for you might be willing to pay parts of your early payoff penalty. This is of course always given that they see some kind of profit from you as a customer higher than the penalty.

In the US, mortgages are more common to be fixed at longer terms (could be for example 30 years) while in for example many European countries it is much more common with a floating rate mortgage. This, and more, makes the conditions for refinancing different depending on where you are from and what your situation is.