How to Request a Mortgage Recast

Updated 2026-08-03 · General education, not financial advice

How to request a mortgage recast, step by step

If you've come into a lump sum — a bonus, a home sale, an inheritance — and you want a lower monthly bill without giving up your interest rate, learning how to request a mortgage recast is the practical next move. A recast (also called a re-amortization) is a request you make to your loan servicer: you pay down a chunk of principal, and the servicer recalculates your monthly payment over your remaining term at your same rate. The catch that trips up most homeowners is that this doesn't happen on its own. You have to ask for it, in the right order, using your servicer's process. Below is exactly how to recast your mortgage from first phone call to first lower payment.

Before you dial, it helps to be clear on what a mortgage recast actually is and what it does — namely, that it lowers your monthly payment but does not cut your interest rate or, on its own, reduce your lifetime interest the way steadily paying extra principal does. With that in mind, here's the process.

The 6 steps to recast your mortgage

Step 1: Confirm your loan is eligible and current

Recasting is primarily a feature of conventional loans — those backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Government-backed loans (FHA, VA, and USDA) generally cannot be recast, and jumbo or portfolio loans vary by lender. Just as important as loan type: your account almost always has to be current, with no missed or late payments. Servicers typically also want to see a short history of on-time payments before they'll re-amortize — often somewhere in the range of about 2 to 6 payments — but the exact seasoning rule is set by your servicer, so confirm it directly.

Step 2: Call your servicer and ask for a recast

This is the heart of the mortgage recast request: you have to initiate it. Call the company you send your payment to each month (your servicer, which may not be the lender who originated the loan) and ask specifically whether they offer a recast or re-amortization on your loan. Use those words. Some front-line representatives aren't familiar with the term, so if the first person can't help, ask for the loan servicing or payment-research department. Get the answer in writing if you can, and ask them to email or mail you their specific instructions.

Step 3: Confirm the minimum lump sum and the fee

Before you move any money, pin down two numbers. First, the minimum principal reduction the servicer requires to qualify for a recast — commonly in the range of about $5,000 to $10,000, though some servicers instead set the minimum as a percentage of your current balance. Second, the recast fee, which is typically modest, often somewhere from $0 to about $500. Ask whether the lump sum must be a single payment or can be an amount you've already paid down, and whether there's a maximum. Treat any figures you read online as ballpark ranges and confirm the exact ones with your servicer.

Step 4: Make the principal-reduction payment as instructed

Follow the servicer's directions precisely. Most require the payment to be clearly designated as a principal-only curtailment, and many want it made in a specific way — a particular online option, a mailed check with a memo line, or a wire — and sometimes on or alongside the signed recast request. If you simply push extra money through your normal payment portal without following their recast instructions, it may land as a generic prepayment and not qualify. When in doubt, ask the representative to confirm your payment was received and coded correctly for a recast.

Step 5: Sign or confirm the re-amortization

Once the principal payment posts, the servicer re-amortizes the loan and typically sends you a document showing your new, lower monthly payment over the same remaining term at the same rate. You may need to sign or otherwise confirm the modified payment agreement for it to take effect. Read it and check the three things that should be true of a proper recast: the interest rate is unchanged, the payoff date is unchanged, and only the monthly payment has dropped. If any of those looks off, call before you sign.

Step 6: Keep paying your OLD payment until the new one takes effect

This is the step people skip, and it can cost you. Processing a recast takes time, and your lower payment doesn't become official the moment your lump sum posts. Until the servicer confirms the new payment is effective, keep paying your original (higher) amount on schedule. Dropping to your expected new payment early — before it's official — can leave you short, trigger a late fee, and, ironically, make your loan no longer current, jeopardizing the very recast you asked for. Once you have written confirmation of the effective date, switch to the new amount and update any autopay.

The costly mistake: a big principal payment is not a recast

If you remember one thing, make it this: a large unsolicited principal payment does not automatically recast your loan. Send your servicer $40,000 with no recast request, and in most cases they'll simply apply it to your balance. Your loan gets paid off sooner and you save interest — both good things — but your required monthly payment stays exactly the same. To get the lower payment, you must formally request the recast and the servicer must re-amortize the remaining balance over your remaining term. The paperwork and the payment go together; one without the other doesn't deliver the result you're after. If lowering the monthly bill is your goal, don't wire the money first and ask questions later — ask first.

Typical ranges to expect (confirm each with your servicer)

Because every servicer writes its own rules, the figures below are general ranges, not guarantees or quotes. Use them to know what's normal, then verify the specifics for your loan.

None of these are universal laws. A servicer might have no fee and a $10,000 minimum; another might charge a few hundred dollars and accept less. The only way to know your numbers is to ask. For a closer look at how long the paperwork and processing take end to end, see how long a mortgage recast takes.

There's no single universal recast form

Homeowners often search for "the" recast form, expecting one standard document like a tax form. There isn't one. There's no government form and no industry-wide template — each servicer runs its own recast process steps, its own request method (a form, a secure message, or a phone request), its own minimums, and its own fee. That's why the phone call in Step 2 matters so much: the person on the other end can tell you precisely what their process requires. Policies also differ widely from one company to the next, so what a friend did at their bank may not match yours.

To get a sense of how different servicers approach recasting before you call, browse our lender recast policy directory. And once you're ready to see what a lower payment would — and wouldn't — change for your specific loan, model it with our mortgage recast calculator so you walk into that conversation knowing the numbers.

This article is for educational purposes only and is not financial, mortgage, or tax advice. Recast eligibility, fees, minimums, seasoning periods, and required forms are set by your servicer and can change; confirm the specifics of your own loan with your servicer before making a lump-sum payment or changing what you pay each month.