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Day one · What is the one-time fee, and is it waived?

VA funding fee

One fee, charged once, in place of mortgage insurance charged every month for years. Whether it is the better trade is arithmetic; whether you owe it at all is a question about your file.

Every figure this page produces is illustrative. The rate you type is an assumption, not an offer; nothing here is a quote, an application or a commitment to lend. The assumptions in force are printed at the bottom of the page.

What you are working from

VA allows nothing down. Five and ten per cent are the two thresholds where the fee steps down.

Subsequent use carries a higher fee below 5% down, and the same fee at 5% or above.

You type this. Plinth publishes no rates.

Most borrowers do. It is also the choice that turns a one-off charge into thirty years of interest.

Recalculates as you type. There is no submit button and nothing is sent.

Funding fee Illustrative

$0

Working it out.

The funding fee is waived entirely for some borrowers. Tick the box if that is you.

Financed, or paid at closing

Paid at closing
$0Cash on the day, and the fee never appears again.
Financed over the term
$0The same fee, amortised at the rate you typed for the whole term. The difference is interest.

—

  • Loan before the fee$0
  • Loan as it will be written$0
  • Principal and interest a month$0
  • Added to the payment by financing the fee$0
  • Monthly mortgage insuranceNone — VA charges none at all

Every figure in this panel is illustrative and moves with the inputs on the left.

The fee across the down-payment tiers

At your purchase price, the fee at nothing down, five per cent down and ten per cent down, for first and for subsequent use. Two things move at once: the percentage falls and so does the loan it is charged on. Illustrative.

The fee across the down-payment tiers
Show these numbers as a table

What financing the fee costs over the term

The rising line is what you will have paid towards the financed fee by each year; the flat dashed line is what the same fee would have cost in cash at closing. The dashed vertical rule is the year financing overtakes paying. Illustrative.

What financing the fee costs over the term

The published tiers, and the things the tiers do not tell you

These are the percentages published for VA purchase loans closed on or after7 April 2023. The VA republishes this table and has changed it before, so it is a starting point rather than a permanent fact — confirm the current one at VA.gov before you rely on any figure on this page.

VA purchase funding fee percentages by down payment and use
Down paymentFirst useSubsequent use
Less than 5%2.15%3.30%
5% to 9.99%1.50%1.50%
10% or more1.25%1.25%
Interest rate reduction refinance (IRRRL)0.50%0.50%
Cash-out refinance2.15%3.30%

Who does not pay it

The fee is waived for a veteran receiving compensation for a service-connected disability, for a veteran who would be entitled to that compensation but for receiving retirement or active-duty pay, for certain surviving spouses, and for a Purple Heart recipient serving on active duty. The waiver is proven from your file — the certificate of eligibility usually carries the exemption status — and it is worth checking before you accept a fee on a loan estimate.

There is no monthly mortgage insurance

None. Not PMI, not an FHA-style annual premium, not a USDA-style annual fee. That is the structural difference between VA and every other low-down-payment programme, and it is what the funding fee buys. A one-off charge replaces a monthly one, which is why the comparison against FHA has to be made over the years you stay rather than in the first month.

Loan limits apply only to partial entitlement

With full entitlement there is no VA loan limit on the guaranty — the limit is what a lender will lend and what you can repay. County loan limits return only where entitlement is partial: an existing VA loan still open, or a previous one not restored. If that is your situation the county figure matters, and it is set annually, so look it up rather than reading it here.

A refinance is a different fee

An interest rate reduction refinance loan carries a reduced fee of 0.50% regardless of down payment or prior use. A cash-out refinance does not — it is charged at the higher purchase-style rates in the table above. This calculator prices a purchase.

The assumptions in force

  • The tiers used are those published for loans closed on or after 7 April 2023. The VA republishes them; treat the figures here as a starting point and confirm the current table at VA.gov.
  • The fee is one-time. It is charged once at closing, financed or paid, and it is never charged again on that loan.
  • The exemption is a fact about your file, not about this calculator. Ticking the box models a waiver; it does not establish one. Your certificate of eligibility is what settles it.
  • Only a purchase is modelled. IRRRL and cash-out refinances carry their own percentages, printed above and not applied by the inputs.
  • The cost of financing is modelled as the fee amortised at the rate and term you typed. That is exact for a fixed-rate loan held to term and an overstatement for anyone who sells or refinances earlier.
  • No mortgage insurance is charged anywhere on this page because VA charges none. That is a programme rule, not an assumption.
  • Property tax, insurance, HOA and closing costs are excluded. This page prices the funding fee and the loan it sits on.
  • Nothing here is a quote, an offer, an application or a commitment to lend.

No obligation, and no transmission

Ask a person about this

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This form does not send anything. It validates what you type and then stops. Nothing is stored, nothing is transmitted, no cookie is set and nobody will call you. The demonstration is the point — on a real build one function call inLeadForm.astro would hand this to a CRM.

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