<prompt> Human: So I have a relatively small mortgage 100,000 on a home of 160,000. Because I am new to the USA at the time I purchased, I could only get a rate of 7.5 7 year ARM total period 30 years plan to pay off. Now 6 months later my credit history and rating have jumped up a lot and I am refinancing it at 3.5. Every month for the past 6 months I have been paying 2-3000 to pay off the principal as quickly as possible. The new loan is for the same amount as my original loan so what happens to the extra principal I had paid off already? Do I get this back from the original lender at signing?I assume that at signing, the new lender pays off the old lender for the remaining principal , but because the new loan is the same amount as the previous loan then there is a bit of a difference. What happens to that difference?  <response>: why are you refinancing at the original loan amount, rather than at the amount that you currently owe on the mortgage? 