@kevbo My gut feeling is you’re better off refinancing, but again, you need to run the actual numbers. If the total dollars you will spend over the life of the new loan is less than what you have remaining on the old loan, I think do it. Your new loan will have interest up front again, and might give you a better tax break. It might depend on whether you are able to itemize.
Did you check out the monthly amortization table? Even without that you can do the simple math and take your monthly payment times the amount of months for both your old and new loan and see the total dollars you are going to pay on each. That will give you dollars that will actually be leaving your pocket, even if we ignore how much interest and principal it is.
So, to be more clear if your monthly payment is $650 and you have 17 years left, 17X12=204 months. 650×204=$132,600. If your new loan is $590x$180=$106,200. Pretty big difference. You have to add some dollars for the refi expenses.
Remember to make the calculation apples to apples. Don’t include any escrows like insurance or property taxes.
If you pay extra each month on the current loan the savings might be similar, I’m
not sure exactly what it will be, but you will have to pay more per month right now, if that matters to you, refi you pay less per month now.
That’s my opinion. I’m not any sort of financial advisor. Also, remember the people trying to give you the new loan are salespeople, they want their commission, so be a little wary of that.