VA Loan Benefit Calculator

Rolling the funding fee into the loan balance means it accrues interest over the full 30-year term just like the rest of the principal, rather than being paid off once upfront the way a conventional down payment removes that amount from the loan entirely. That's why the total lifetime savings figure nets in both the conventional buyer's cash down payment and the VA buyer's financed funding fee, since each represents a different form of upfront cost with different long-term consequences.

Both costs apply identically whether you finance with a VA loan or a conventional loan, since neither loan type changes what the local government charges in property tax or what an insurer charges for a homeowners policy on the same house. Because they're common to both options, including them would add the same amount to both sides of the comparison without changing the actual dollar difference between VA and conventional financing.

It checks whether your entered conventional down payment percentage is below 20% — the standard industry threshold below which lenders require private mortgage insurance to protect against the buyer's smaller equity stake. At or above 20% down, the calculator sets monthly PMI to zero, since a down payment at or above that threshold conventionally eliminates the PMI requirement entirely.

Yes — if the VA interest rate you enter is meaningfully higher than the conventional rate, or the funding fee percentage is high while the conventional down payment is large enough to avoid PMI, the conventional payment can come out lower despite carrying a down payment and PMI cost the VA loan avoids. This calculator is built specifically to reveal that crossover rather than assume VA loans always win, since the actual comparison depends heavily on the rates and fees you enter.