Included below is a summary of responses I received to my question about recasting a mortgage vs. refinancing. As it turns out my mortgage company will not re-negotiate the loan. They will refigure the payment schedule if you were to plop down a few grand as a prepay, but they will not do adjustments to terms of the loan. Too bad. Many mortgages it seems are sold to various institutions and may be serviced by the company you send payments to. If this is the case in your situation, the servicing organization can not re-negotiate the loan since they don't even hold the papers and it seems doubtful that they'll forward you to the actual note holder. Not to discourage anyone, but it's diffinitely worth a call to your mortgage holder to find out about. Lots a fees can be saved but the rate is likely to be a bit higher than the refinance rate. In my case I had to make several calls to find the right person to speak with sicne evryone up to that point kept saying either they didn't know what I was trying to do or that they couldn't do what I wanted. I ended up with the Special Loans Dept. who finally gave me some good information. This is the Dept. which handles working out payment schedules in the event you lose your job or something along those lines.  I hope this helps someone, it sure enlightened me. I want to thank everyone who responded with a sincere Thank you . **************************************************Doug Monroe****** From: Bill Westfield < This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Your existing mortgage holder might renegotiate the interest rate _base_d on the time you have left on your loan, giving you effectively a (current) rate on the equivilent of a 23 year mortgage.  This would save you a lot of interest in the long run, and the bank would keep you as a customer. From: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (Bob Wier)   Doug - I just sent back a whole bunch of documentation on a re-fianace   yesterday.  I've found that I don't a LOT less paperwork on this re-finance   than I did on the original loan with the same company.  Now, they may   just be requiring less than they did in 1986 (I doubt it, considering   the economy). Another benefit was that they gave me a coupon for a   $250 fee reduction on the re-finance (which cut the application fee   in half)...   Incidentally, this is CountryWide Funding, _base_d in California From: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Any financial advantages? Yeah, lots.  I wish I could have re-negotiated my mortgage. Consider, no points, no legal fees, no recording fees, no taxes, no _title_ search, ad nauseum.  Adds up quickly. Ask you current mortgagee nicely, I am going to refinance. do you want first shot at it, will you rewrite my loan? From: Charles Ross Peters < This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Basically, what I think you are talking about is negociating a new interest rate with your current mortgage company.  Why would they do this you may ask? The answer is to keep your business.  The rate they might offer will probably be slightly higher than refinancing with someone else but the up front costs should be lower.  The idea being that since you are already a mortgage holder with them you are a known risk (ie. they already have paperwork on you and your house). In practice this doesn't happen very often because most financial institiutions sell their mortgages shortly after they are issued, so they have no vested interest in keeping you since all they do is service your account anyway. It seems only the local small town banks and S & Ls actually keep the mortgages that they issue for any length of time.  The larger institutions buy and sell mortgages fairly often depending on the needs of the institution. It's quite likely that your mortgage is owned by some other institution and you aren't even aware of it. From: btree! This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it I assume that you are looking for what is frequently called a mortgage adjustment where you pay some cash fee to the mortgage company and they reduce your interest rate (in the case of an adjustable rate mortgage, both the maximum and minimum rates are changed as well as the current rate). The advantage to this is that you don't lose any principal, and you don't have to jump through hoops to buy your house all over again.  I think it's a good way to go; unfortunately, our lender won't do it . Another possible benefit to staying with the same lender: you already know how they do business.  If their business practices are acceptable then that could be a big plus. From: blsouth! This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (Michael S. Klein) I don't know what re-casting is, but check with your lender.  Some lenders- -will reduce the closing costs on a re-finance (mine did it for 2% instead  of the 2.8 or 3% that is standard in Atlanta) to existing customers.  My refinance happened with no out-of-pocket expense (the closing costs  and points were rolled into the new amount financed). -sometimes have a no-points no-closing costs mortgage rate (which is  higher than market rates, but still lowers your payment). From: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (Russell I. Dyreng) The one real advantage to staying with the same mortgage company is that  soemtimes they can save you a little bit of money on your up-front fees.  I think that the _title_ search or _title_ insurance doesn't have to be redone, saving you a little bit on closing costs.