Discount Point

Discount Point

One percentage point of the principal of a mortgage loan that some lenders require borrowers to pay immediately as a condition of making the loan. That is, if the lender makes a mortgage loan, it may require the borrower to pay a certain amount of discount points up front. The amount paid is deducted from the interest the borrower would otherwise owe on the loan. Discount points are tax deductible for the borrower because they qualify as prepaid interest.

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Discount point. Some lenders require you to prepay a portion of the interest due on your mortgage as a condition of approving the loan. They set the amount due at one or more discount points, with each discount point equal to 1% of the mortgage loan principal.

For instance, if you must pay one point on a $100,000 mortgage, you owe $1,000.

>From your perspective, the advantages of paying discount points are that your long-term interest rate is lowered slightly for each point you pay, and prepaid interest is tax deductible. The advantage, from the lenders' point of view, is that they collect some of their interest earnings up front.