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Finance

How do I Choose the Best Mortgage Refinance Calculator?

By Nicholas K.
Updated May 17, 2024
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Homeowners use mortgage refinance calculators to determine if they can lower their monthly mortgage payments. The best mortgage refinance calculator allows you to enter information through a simple interface. You can cover every financial metric involved in mortgage refinancing with a high-quality calculator. The results of your refinancing calculations should be available through multiple media. Your source for mortgage refinancing advice can combine a good calculator with mortgage analysis, and you might be able to access additional calculators from a website with a good refinance calculator.

A simple interface can simplify your use of a mortgage refinance calculator. You might find mortgage calculators with scrolling menus that allow customization within specified intervals. These menus can be limiting if you have unique circumstances that fall between these intervals. The best mortgage refinance calculator allows you to enter a wider range of numbers with text boxes.

The best mortgage refinance calculator does not ignore the various facts and figures needed for a refinancing quote. Every calculator will feature basic information like mortgage amounts, lengths, and interest rates. Your refinancing calculations are more accurate when you use a calculator with advanced fields for origination fees and closing costs. You can customize your refinancing quote further when you use a calculator with a tax field.

Your mortgage refinance calculator should allow results to be accessible by email, PDF, and print. The results of each refinance calculation might be sent to your personal or business email. You might be able to generate a PDF with your refinance quote along with available mortgage options. The mortgage company that hosts the online calculator might send out a printed quote along with the number of an agent in your area.

A mortgage company might combine a refinance calculator with a series of additional calculators. You can reinforce your decision to own instead of buy with a rent-versus-buy cost calculator. Your refinance calculator may also connect to calculators dealing exclusively with interest rates, mortgage lengths, and tax benefits. These calculators allow you to gather as much information on mortgage changes as possible before signing any documents.

You might want some analysis of the mortgage market to accompany your refinance calculator. A mortgage company can explain the refinancing process and market trends through online articles. You may be able to speak with a mortgage agent without picking up a phone using an online chat feature. These tools can turn long lists of refinancing numbers into a clearer picture of your financial future.

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Discussion Comments

By JessiC — On Aug 11, 2011

@poppyseed – I have discovered the same thing, although I’m in a slightly different situation. We’re thinking of refinancing our home.

However, I have another suggestion for you as well. I learned that our credit union has a really great mortgage calculator. I never found it because I was just searching for them online.

However, I was paying some bills and checking my online banking information when I noticed that they had a mortgage calculator of their own.

It was actually the most accurate that I’ve ran across so far. It is purely an educational tool, and is not designed to try to rope you in to any specific lender.

Maybe you should try out your own personal bank or credit union as well.

By poppyseed — On Aug 11, 2011

My husband and I are currently planning a pretty large relocation from the coast of North Carolina to Eastern Tennessee. While we already have a mortgage, we’ve put our home on the market.

And, with all of the changes in the economy since we actually purchased this home eight years ago, we have been using mortgage calculators to see what we’re getting into.

I’ve got to say that some of them are great, and allow you to change all of the most important information like interest rate, loan term and amount of down payment.

Others, on the other hand, simply seem to be a scheme to get you to go with a specific mortgage company and are pretty useless.

I would suggest trusting the ones that are flexible, but not to the point that you'd assume they are the gospel truth.

Always check with your mortgage lender for all specifics.

By honeybees — On Aug 10, 2011

I find it very helpful to have a good mortgage refinancing calculator available. It is not hard to find one, and they can give you a wealth of information.

By plugging in different interest rates, loan amounts, length of loan and any extra payments, you can get an excellent idea of where your money is going.

Before the internet, you had to either rely on your mortgage officer to give you this information, or figure it out by hand.

These online calculators make this job so much easier. Whichever one you choose to use isn't as important as making sure the information lines up with what your mortgage loan officer tells you.

By LisaLou — On Aug 10, 2011

There are a lot of mortgage refinancing calculators available online. I have found that most of them provide you with the same basic information.

Those that are most helpful to me allow me to use an amortization schedule. I try to pay off extra principal on my loan amount whenever I can.

If the mortgage calculator has this capability, it shows me how much sooner I can pay off the loan depending on how much extra money I apply to the principal balance.

By Mykol — On Aug 09, 2011

When we were looking at refinancing our mortgage to take advantage of lower interest rates, I used an online calculator through bank rate.

We were trying to decide between a 30 year or a 20 year loan. While we wanted to get the best interest rate, we also didn't want to stretch ourselves too thin. We wanted our monthly payment to be manageable.

I used the mortgage refinancing calculator to help me have a good understanding of the numbers before we talked with out banker. This gave me the information I wanted so we could make an informed decision along with our bankers input.

By Tomislav — On Aug 09, 2011

@tolleranza - There is one thing that I had no idea about until I went and tried to refinance our mortgage and it actually has something to do with something you mentioned in your comment.

Although I had a great credit score, had bought our house under tax value, we were unable to refinance because it we had not owned our home for long (If I remember correctly, at that time we had owned our home for approximately one year).

I am not sure how much of a factor that plays in refinancing, but it was a factor in my experience!

By tolleranza — On Aug 09, 2011

Rates are so low right now that even though I have only been in my house for two years that I am thinking about refinancing. My husband is a realtor and says that for every percentage point you lose; you gain a fifty to hundred dollar decrease in your monthly mortgage (for people in a 100,000 to 200,0000 home - approximately).

We will have to try and find the best mortgage refinance calculator, any other things I need to think about than the interest rate, origination fees and closing costs?

By drtroubles — On Aug 08, 2011

@wander - You know, I actually found that the mortgage refinance calculator from my own bank was pretty terrible. Whenever I entered certain interest rates and so on it would actually crash. I had a heck of a time getting it to work so I eventually gave up.

If you do some research online you can find lots of free software that can help you figure out how to best lower your mortgage payments. If that doesn't work I would recommend actually visiting your bank and speaking with a mortgage specialist. These appointments are free of charge and you can learn a lot about your mortgage and how to make it better. The mortgage refinance calculators they use at the bank are second to none.

By wander — On Aug 08, 2011

If you are looking for a mortgage refinance calculator you should first check and see if your own bank has one available for free on their website. When I was looking to refinance my mortgage that is the first place I looked at.

One of the benefits of using a mortgage refinance calculator from your home bank is that you can use it alongside your financial data already available online. Your payments, interest rates and other data are already there for the calculator to use. With the right program from your bank it can make your life much easier figuring out what you need to do to save costs.

My bank actually offered to refinance my mortgage just so I would stay with them. I got an excellent rate and was glad I stuck with my home bank.

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