Basics
A loan origination fee is a charge the lender makes for giving the loan to the borrower. This is an upfront charge, not like the interest rate which is the charge the lender makes over time.
A lender may charge an origination fee, but most usually do not charge more than 1%-2% of the loan amount.
Many lenders do not charge a loan origination fee, or only a very minor one. Fees that are a percentage of the loan amount can be quite large. A 2% origination fee is:
- $10,000 on a $500,000 loan
- $2,000 on a $100,000 loan
- bad credit
- declining credit
- little assets
- little or no equity
- inability to document income
- inability to document employment