Does Your Servicer Allow a Recast? How to Find Out

Most American mortgages are serviced by companies that publish nothing at all about recasting. Not a page, not an FAQ entry, not a fee schedule line. That silence is not a refusal — it is a gap, and it is why so much recast advice online is guesswork dressed as policy. This page is the method for finding out where you actually stand, in writing, in about two messages.

The short answer

Ask six questions in one secure message, reference your loan number, and ask for the answers in writing. If the reply is verbal, ask them to send it. If the reply is vague, ask again with the specific items numbered.

The six: is a recast available on my loan given its current investor; what is the minimum principal reduction; what is the fee and how is it charged; is the fee refundable if declined; what is the effective date convention; and does the request have to precede the funds.

Why so few servicers publish

Recasting is a servicing policy, not a regulated product. There is no disclosure requirement, no standard form, and no obligation to offer it at all. That produces three tiers of servicer.

Tier one publishes a page or a help-centre article with real numbers — a fee, a minimum, a timeline. A handful of large institutions do this, and they are the easy cases.

Tier two buries the product under a different name: a principal reduction modification, a re-amortisation request, a servicing exception. Search "recast" on their site and you find nothing, which is not the same as the product not existing.

Tier three genuinely does not offer it, or offers it only on loans they hold in portfolio. Their silence is accurate.

You cannot tell which tier you are dealing with from the website. You find out by asking.

The six questions, and why each one matters

1. "Is a recast available on my loan, given the current investor?" The word *investor* is deliberate. Your servicer collects the payment; someone else may own the loan, and their guidelines can prohibit a recast the servicer would otherwise offer. A "yes" that ignores the investor is worthless.

2. "What is the minimum principal reduction?" Without this you cannot tell whether your lump sum qualifies. Published floors run from nothing at all to 10% of the balance, and the number is not inferable from your neighbour's loan.

3. "What is the fee, is it deducted from my lump sum or billed separately, and is it refundable if the request is declined?" Three sub-questions, one answer needed. A non-refundable fee paid before eligibility is confirmed is money at risk.

4. "What is the effective date convention — which billing cycle does the new payment start in?" This is the question with money attached. Interest accrues on the old balance until the effective date, at roughly $8.90 a day per $50,000 at 6.5%.

5. "Does the request have to be submitted before the funds, or can they arrive together?" Get this wrong and your lump sum is processed as an ordinary principal payment: balance down, payment unchanged, and no recast.

6. "Is my loan scheduled for a servicing transfer?" Recasts die in transfers. If the loan is moving, wait until the new servicer has boarded it.

What a usable answer looks like

A real answer names a number, a channel and a date. It looks like: "Yes, $10,000 minimum, $250 non-refundable, submit the form before funds, effective the first cycle after processing, roughly 45 days."

An unusable answer looks like: "We do offer mortgage recasts on eligible loans, subject to investor guidelines. Please contact our customer service team." That is not a refusal, and it is not information — it is a sentence that survives any change in policy. Ask again, with the six items numbered and your loan number at the top.

What the published policies actually say

The servicers that do publish differ wildly, which is the best argument for not generalising.

[Chase](../../lenders/chase-recast/index.html) states no appraisal, no credit check, and no minimum at all, with the recast modification listed among its no-cost services — but excludes FHA, VA and USDA loans.

[Bank of America](../../lenders/bank-of-america-recast/index.html) requires $5,000 of principal curtailment over six months, charges no fee, allows one recast per rolling year, and ties the effective date to a 15th-of-the-month cut-off.

[PNC](../../lenders/pnc-recast/index.html) calls it a Principal Reduction Modification, charges $250 up front and non-refundable, wants a letter by post, and quotes six to eight weeks.

[Mr. Cooper](../../lenders/mr-cooper-recast/index.html) requires $10,000 and quotes up to 90 days, with a fee it does not publish.

[Wells Fargo](../../lenders/wells-fargo-recast/index.html) documents the product only in its jumbo-loan material, excludes FHA and VA, and confirms eligibility only through a mortgage consultant.

Five policies, five different shapes. Any comparison table that gives one number per lender is averaging things that are not comparable.

Three answers that should stop you

"You need to complete an application." A recast requires no underwriting. If an application appears, you are being moved toward a refinance, which pays the person on the phone and costs you thousands.

"We can do it, just send the funds first." Funds before a written quote is the single most expensive sequencing error in this process. There is no legitimate reason to require it before quoting the new payment.

"A third party handles our recasts." Nobody can authorise a recast except the servicer or its subservicer. Firms charging to "process" one are submitting the same message you could send yourself.

If the answer is no

Four routes remain, and none of them does the same job. Extra principal reduces the balance and shortens the loan without lowering the payment, and costs nothing. A refinance changes the rate and resets the term, at the price of closing costs. A loan modification is a hardship tool, not a preference tool. And waiting is a genuine strategy: servicing transfers are frequent, and the new servicer's policy applies, not the old one's.

Ask once, properly

The difference between a two-week answer and a three-month argument is almost always the first message. Number the questions, put the loan number at the top, ask for a written reply, and keep it.

That is genuinely all most borrowers need — and it is why this page exists instead of a dozen thin pages about companies that publish nothing.

One more habit worth forming: date the reply in your own notes, and re-ask every twelve months or after any servicing transfer. Recast policies move quietly — a fee appears, a minimum doubles, a product is withdrawn — and none of that is announced. The written answer you hold is a snapshot, not a rule, and treating it as a rule is how people budget around a recast that no longer exists.