I see so many people hung up on interest rates.

Of course every loan officer pulls the standard:

"JuSt ReFiNaNcE bRo!"

But even when I was talking with my mortgage company, it wasn't until sometime afterwards and a lot of inquiry that he clued me in on what recasting was and how I could use it to my advantage to lower monthly interest.

For folks savvy to the industry, is recasting purposely kept as a hush-hush topic? or is it just not as common for all companies to offer products that allow for recasting?

I'll explain what a recast is first, then answer some of these specific questions.

Here's a past post that I've done on recasting

In short, you pay a big chunk of money up front, then adjust your monthly payment so you stay on the same course.

Usually when you pay extra toward a mortgage, you are shortening the term which means you'll pay it off faster.

Rather than pay it off faster, you can pay the big chunk of money, then recast it so it lowers your mortgage payment, and you end up paying off the mortgage in the same amount of time.

For folks savvy to the industry, is recasting purposely kept as a hush-hush topic? or is it just not as common for all companies to offer products that allow for recasting?

There isn't any incentive for your mortgage company to withhold the option of recasting.

But there is also a lack of incentive for a company to suggest it.

The bigger incentive is to push you toward a refinance.

Granted, a refinance might make more sense depending on where rates are at. More on that here.

But if a refinance doesn't make sense, you have a large sum you'd like to apply toward your mortgage, and you'd like to lower your monthly payment, then a recast is perfect for you, and should be suggested by the lender.

It will come down to who you are talking with.

If you're talking with a loan officer, their goal is to create as many mortgage applications as possible.

If your goal is to recast, don't talk to a loan officer, talk to the customer service of the servicing department.

Quick word on recasting

Here's a calculator for you

it cannot be done on FHA loans.

Hope this helps, drop more questions here if you have them