Mr. Cooper Mortgage Recast: Process, Fee, and Timeline (2026)
Last updated 6 min read By the Mortgage Recast Calculators team
Mr. Cooper recasts eligible conventional loans with a $10,000 minimum principal payment and a non-refundable fee of up to $250. The one rule that trips people up: you must submit the recast request form before making the lump-sum payment. These terms come from the official Mr. Cooper help center, and they are among the more clearly documented recast policies of any major servicer.
Mr. Cooper recast rules at a glance
| Requirement | Mr. Cooper policy |
|---|---|
| Minimum principal payment | $10,000 |
| Fee | Non-refundable, up to $250 |
| Request order | Submit the recast request form before making the lump-sum payment |
| Processing time | Up to 90 days |
| After a servicing transfer | Recently transferred accounts may need to wait 90 days |
| Excluded loans | FHA, VA, USDA, GNMA, interest-only, Option ARMs, commercial |
| Credit check | None; rate and term unchanged |
The order matters: form first, payment second
Most servicers let you make the principal payment and then ask for a recast. Mr. Cooper reverses that. Its help center instructs borrowers to submit the recast request form before making the lump-sum payment, and warns that paying before submitting the form and fee delays processing. It also states plainly that making the payment does not guarantee approval.
The practical takeaway: do not wire $10,000 to Mr. Cooper and expect a lower payment to follow automatically. A large principal payment made without an approved recast still reduces your balance and total interest, but your monthly payment stays exactly the same. That outcome is what our recast vs extra payments comparison is about; it is fine if faster payoff is your goal, but it is not what most people sending a lump sum to Mr. Cooper intend.
Step-by-step: how to recast with Mr. Cooper
- Confirm eligibility. Your loan must be conventional. FHA, VA, USDA, and GNMA loans, interest-only loans, Option ARMs, and commercial loans are excluded. If your account recently transferred to Mr. Cooper, you may need to wait 90 days.
- Submit the recast request form and the fee. The fee is non-refundable and can be up to $250, so confirm eligibility first.
- Make your lump-sum principal payment of at least $10,000 after the form is in, marked clearly for principal.
- Wait for processing, up to 90 days. Keep making your regular monthly payment the entire time. Your new, lower payment applies only once the recast completes.
The fee: up to $250, non-refundable
Mr. Cooper phrases its fee as "usually a non-refundable fee of up to $250," which means it may vary by loan or state but will not exceed $250. That is in line with the $150-$500 industry range and identical to the ceiling at Rocket Mortgage, U.S. Bank, Truist, Newrez, and LoanDepot. A few servicers charge nothing at all; see our recast fee comparison across ten servicers. Because the fee is non-refundable, the order-of-operations rule above matters twice over: get the form in and eligibility confirmed before any money moves.
Timeline: up to 90 days, plus a possible 90-day transfer wait
Two separate 90-day figures apply, and they are easy to confuse:
- Processing: up to 90 days from a complete request (form, fee, and qualifying payment) to the new payment taking effect. This is the longest published timeline of any servicer we track; Newrez, by comparison, quotes about 30 days, and Truist quotes 30 to 60 business days once funds and documentation are in. Bank of America publishes no total processing time at all.
- Transfer seasoning: 90 days. If your loan was recently transferred to Mr. Cooper from another servicer, you may need to wait 90 days before you can recast at all.
In a worst case, a borrower whose loan just transferred could wait roughly six months from transfer to a lower payment. Plan around that rather than being surprised by it.
Which loans are excluded
Mr. Cooper's exclusion list is longer and more specific than most servicers publish: government-backed loans (FHA, VA, USDA, GNMA), interest-only loans, Option ARMs, and commercial loans cannot be recast at Mr. Cooper. The government-loan exclusion is effectively universal across servicers; see our guides for FHA borrowers and VA borrowers for the alternatives that actually work for those programs. If you have a standard conventional loan, our conventional recast guide covers the Fannie and Freddie rules behind servicer policies.
The Mr. Cooper and Rocket merger
Mr. Cooper and Rocket Mortgage have merged. For now the two servicing platforms publish separate recast policies, and the differences are real: Rocket takes recast requests by phone, allows the $10,000 minimum to be met with cumulative principal payments over a 12-month window, and charges a flat $250, but publishes no processing timeline. Follow the policy of the platform that actually services your loan, the name on your monthly statement. If that is Rocket, see our Rocket Mortgage recast guide. Either way, call and confirm before submitting anything, since policies can consolidate after a merger.
Estimate your new payment first
Before committing $10,000 plus a non-refundable fee, run the numbers. Our free mortgage recast calculator shows your new monthly payment and total interest change from any lump sum, and our guide to how mortgage recasting works explains each step of the process, including a sample request letter you can adapt.