There are four separate ways a conventional mortgage insurance premium ends, they run on different clocks, and only one of them happens without you asking. The one most people are waiting for is usually not the earliest. This works out all four dates from your own loan, tells you which arrives first, and shows what the wait is costing you.
An estimate from your figures, not advice, and not an offer of credit.
Three of these are rights under federal law and one is the investor's own policy. They are not alternatives to choose between, whichever comes first is the one that ends it, and you only have to know the earliest.
Three of them are federal law and are rights you hold. One is investor policy. All four are published, and every date above comes out of them.
Automatic termination runs on the original amortisation schedule, not on what you actually owe. Cancellation on request runs on what you actually owe.
So if you have been paying extra principal, the two dates have come apart, and the servicer's automatic date has not moved an inch. Nobody will call you about the earlier one. That is the entire reason this page exists.
You may ask the servicer to cancel when the balance reaches 80% of the original value. The request must be in writing.
Four conditions attach. You must be current. You must have a good payment history, nothing 30 days late in the last twelve months and nothing 60 days late in the twelve months before that. The servicer may require evidence that the value has not fallen below the original value. And it may require certification that there is no subordinate lien, which means a home equity line you opened and never drew on can block this, and closing it first is sometimes the whole job.
12 USC 4902(a).
The servicer must terminate the premium, without being asked, on the date the principal balance is first scheduled to reach 78% of the original value, provided you are current on that date. If you are not current, it terminates on the first day of the first month after you become current.
No appraisal. No request. No evidence of value. It is the cleanest of the four and it is also usually the latest, which is the trade.
For a fixed-rate loan the calculation uses the initial amortisation schedule. For an adjustable-rate loan it uses the schedule then in effect.
12 USC 4902(b); CFPB Compliance Bulletin 2015-03.
Whatever the balance has done, the premium cannot be charged beyond the first day of the month following the midpoint of the amortisation period, if you are current on that date. On a 30-year loan that is after payment 180.
It is a backstop rather than a plan. It matters on a loan whose balance falls slowly, a very long term, an interest-only period, or a loan that was modified, where the 78% date would otherwise arrive late or never.
12 USC 4902(c); the midpoint is defined at 12 USC 4901(7).
A loan the investor classes as high risk at consummation does not get the cancellation right or the automatic termination at all. For a conforming loan that carries high risks under Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac guidelines, 12 USC 4902(a) and (b) simply do not apply, only the midpoint backstop survives. For a non-conforming loan the lender designates as high risk, automatic termination happens at 77% of the original value rather than 78%.
It is not common, and a borrower who was not told their loan was designated high risk at closing probably was not. But it is the reason to ask the servicer which rule it is applying rather than assuming the ordinary one, and this page cannot know the answer.
12 USC 4902(g).
This one is not in the Act at all. It is the investor's own policy, and in a market that has risen it is normally the earliest of the four by years.
For a one-unit primary residence or second home: seasoned between two and five years, at 75% of a new appraised value; seasoned more than five years, at 80%. For two- to four-unit properties and investment properties: seasoned more than two years, at 70%.
Substantial improvements that raised the value can waive the two-year seasoning, at 80%.
You pay for the appraisal, and it can come back below what you hoped, which is the honest risk in this route, and the reason to ask the servicer what it will cost before ordering one.
Fannie Mae Servicing Guide B-8.1-04. Freddie Mac's rule is similar but not identical; the servicer applies whichever owns your loan.
“Original value” means the lesser of the contract sales price and the appraised value at the time the loan closed.
Two consequences people find irritating and both are real. A low appraisal you argued about years ago is still setting your date today. And appreciation since closing does nothing at all for the 80% and 78% routes, it only helps through the appraisal route, which is a different rule with different thresholds.
12 USC 4901(12).
FHA's annual premium is not tied to your balance the way conventional insurance is. Which rule governs turns on the date your FHA case number was assigned, not the date you closed, and not the date the loan was endorsed. For a case number assigned on or after 3 June 2013:
Original loan-to-value at or below 90%, the annual premium ends after 11 years.
Original loan-to-value above 90%, it runs for the life of the loan. There is no balance you can reach, no appraisal you can order and no request you can make.
Since the minimum FHA down payment is 3.5%, most FHA borrowers are in the second group. The only exit is to refinance out of FHA, which is why an FHA borrower whose equity and credit have improved is usually looking at a conventional refinance rather than a phone call, and why the comparison is worth running before the eleven years you may not be entitled to.
For a case number assigned before that date the older rule governs, and it is much better: the annual premium ends when the balance reaches 78% of the original value on the original schedule, with at least five years of premiums paid on a term over fifteen years. A loan from 2009 or 2011 does not carry its premium for life, whatever anyone has told the borrower.
A case number is assigned before closing, usually by weeks, so a loan that closed well either side of June 2013 is unambiguous. Inside that window, ask the servicer which rule it is applying.
HUD Mortgagee Letter 2013-04 and HUD Handbook 4000.1.
The Homeowners Protection Act applies to residential mortgage transactions consummated on or after 29 July 1999, secured by a single-family dwelling that is the borrower's primary residence.
A loan that closed before that date is governed by the note and by investor policy alone, the automatic and final terminations are not rights you hold, and the servicer's own rule is what applies. A second home or an investment property sits outside the Act's automatic termination too, and the investor's thresholds there are higher.
None of this affects a VA loan, which has no monthly mortgage insurance at all, or a USDA loan, whose annual fee runs for the life of the loan.
12 USC 4901(15) and 12 USC 4902.
If your mortgage insurance was lender-paid, no separate premium line on the statement, and a rate a little higher than it would otherwise have been, none of the four routes applies. The cost is inside the interest rate for the life of the loan and there is nothing to cancel.
The Act requires a disclosure at closing saying so. If you cannot find a mortgage insurance line on your statement and your down payment was under 20%, that is the most likely explanation, and the only way out of it is a refinance.
The same is true of a single premium paid in full at closing: it bought coverage outright, so there is no monthly charge to end.
Check the statement first and confirm there is a separate mortgage insurance line. If there is not, it is lender-paid or single-premium and none of this applies.
Then work out which of the four dates is earliest for you. If it is the appraisal route, ring the servicer and ask what it requires and what the appraisal costs before ordering anything.
If it is the request route, put it in writing. Close any unused second lien first if there is one. And if the automatic date has already passed and you are still being charged, that is a servicing error rather than a negotiation, the Act requires a refund of premiums collected after the termination date.
Premium refund on unearned amounts: 12 USC 4902(f).
An adjustable rate, where the automatic calculation uses the schedule then in effect rather than the original one. A loan modification, which resets the schedule the Act measures against. An interest-only period. A balance that includes a financed upfront premium. Split-premium structures. A second lien you took after closing, which does not change any of the dates but can block the request route.
It also does not know your payment history, which is a condition on three of the four routes and the one thing here a servicer will check first.
The rules behind the dates above, in plain language.
On the date your balance is first scheduled to reach 78% of the original value, provided you are current. The servicer must do it without being asked and without an appraisal.
The word scheduled is doing a lot of work. It means the original amortisation schedule, so if you have paid extra principal your actual balance got there earlier and the automatic date did not move.
Yes, and there are two separate ways. You can request cancellation once the balance reaches 80% of the original value, which is a right under the Act. Or you can ask the servicer to cancel based on a new appraisal showing today's value, which is investor policy rather than law, and is usually much earlier if the property has appreciated.
Both require you to ask. Neither happens on its own.
It moves the 80% request date, sometimes by years. It does not move the 78% automatic date at all, because that one runs off the original schedule.
So overpaying is worth real money here, but only if you follow it with a written cancellation request. Pay extra and wait for the servicer and you will have bought nothing.
Not through the Act. The 80% and 78% routes are both measured against the original value, the lesser of what you paid and what it appraised for at closing, so appreciation does nothing for either.
It helps through the investor's appraisal route, which uses today's value: two to five years in at 75%, or more than five years in at 80%. In a market that has risen that is normally the earliest date available, and it is the one most borrowers have never heard of.
You pay for it, and the servicer normally orders it rather than accepting one you bring. Ask what it will cost and what value you need before committing, an appraisal that comes back short is money spent for nothing.
Weigh it against what you are paying: at $200 a month, an appraisal that ends the premium two years early pays for itself many times over. At $60 a month and six months early, it does not.
On a loan endorsed on or after 3 June 2013, only if the original loan-to-value was at or below 90%, then it ends after 11 years. Above 90% it runs for the life of the loan.
Because the minimum FHA down payment is 3.5%, most FHA borrowers are in the life-of-loan group. Refinancing out of FHA is the only thing that ends it, which makes it a very different decision from a conventional loan where waiting works.
A backstop. The premium cannot be charged beyond the midpoint of the amortisation period, after payment 180 on a 30-year loan, if you are current, whatever the balance has done.
It rarely binds on an ordinary fixed-rate loan, because the balance reaches 78% well before then. It matters on a modified loan, a very long term, or one with an interest-only period.
If the automatic termination date has passed and you were current, that is a servicing error rather than something to negotiate. Put it in writing, cite the date, and ask for the premiums collected since then to be refunded, the Act requires the return of unearned premiums.
Keep the correspondence. If it is not resolved, it can be escalated to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The usual reasons, in order of frequency: you are measuring against today's value rather than the original value; there is a second lien on the property, including a home equity line you opened and never used; there is a late payment inside the lookback window; or the loan is not a primary residence, where the thresholds are higher.
The second-lien one catches people constantly, and closing an unused line is often the whole job.
Then it is probably lender-paid, and the cost sits inside your interest rate instead. None of the cancellation rules apply to it, there is no monthly charge to end, and it lasts for the life of the loan. A refinance is the only way out.
The same applies if the premium was paid as a single lump sum at closing.
No. VA charges no monthly mortgage insurance at all, there is a one-time funding fee and that is the whole of it. There is nothing to cancel and nothing to wait for.
USDA is the opposite case: its annual fee runs for the life of the loan, like most FHA loans.
Sometimes, and it is arithmetic rather than a rule. On an FHA loan above 90% original loan-to-value it is the only exit, so the question is simply whether the new rate and costs beat the premium you would otherwise pay indefinitely.
On a conventional loan it is almost never worth refinancing purely to end a premium that is going to end anyway on a date you can look up. Work out the date first, it is often closer than people assume.
Taylor Weiner, mortgage loan originator, NMLS #263090 · Lower, LLC, NMLS #1124061 · 5950 Symphony Woods Road, Suite 312, Columbia, MD 21044 · (714) 658-4912 · tweiner@twteam.com · Verify licensing at nmlsconsumeraccess.org. Licensed to originate residential mortgage loans in California.
Not a government agency. The TW Team at Lower is not affiliated with, acting on behalf of, or endorsed by HUD, the FHA, the VA, the USDA, the FHFA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or any other government agency. This page is not a government publication and has not been reviewed or approved by HUD, by the FHA, by the VA, by the USDA or by any other government agency. FHA loans are insured by the Federal Housing Administration and VA loans are guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs; both are originated by approved lenders, not by the agencies themselves.
This calculator is an educational estimate based on figures you enter. It is not legal advice, a rate quote, an offer of credit, or a commitment to lend. No rate on this page is offered or available; the rate field opens on a figure you are expected to replace with your own, and nothing on the page adjusts it. The dates it produces are computed from the published rules cited below and from the figures you supplied; your servicer decides on your actual loan, against your actual payment history and its own verification of value and lien position.
Borrower-requested cancellation at 80% of the original value, automatic termination at 78%, final termination at the midpoint of the amortisation period, the definition of original value as the lesser of the sales price and the appraisal at consummation, the good payment history standard, and the refund of unearned premiums: the Homeowners Protection Act of 1998, 12 USC 4901 and 4902, as explained in CFPB Compliance Bulletin 2015-03.
Termination based on a current appraised value, and the seasoning and loan-to-value thresholds that apply to it: Fannie Mae Servicing Guide B-8.1-04. Freddie Mac publishes a similar but not identical rule; whichever agency owns the loan is the one whose policy the servicer applies.
FHA annual premium duration by original loan-to-value for loans endorsed on or after 3 June 2013: HUD Handbook 4000.1.
The page models a fixed-rate, fully amortising loan with a level monthly mortgage insurance premium. It does not model an adjustable rate, where automatic termination is calculated on the amortisation schedule then in effect rather than the original one; a loan modification, which resets that schedule; an interest-only period; a financed upfront premium inside the balance; split-premium or single-premium structures; or lender-paid mortgage insurance, which cannot be cancelled at all.
It does not know your payment history, your lien position or your servicer's verification requirements, and all three are conditions on the routes described. The value you enter for the property today is your own estimate; the appraisal route requires an appraisal the servicer orders and you pay for, and it may not support the figure you expect.
Dates are calculated to the month. The Act operates on specific days and on the status of the account on those days, so treat a date here as the month to act in rather than as a deadline.
⌂ Equal Housing Opportunity. Lower, LLC is an Equal Housing Lender. We do business in accordance with the Federal Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.
Statutory citations and investor policy current as of September 2026.