Many people who enjoy using a mortgage calculator to estimate their payments often find themselves unpleasantly surprised when it comes time to actually find out what they will pay each month.

Why? Because your monthly mortgage payment is more than just your mortgage payment.

In addition to paying on the principal and the interest for your home mortgage loan, you also have other costs usually included as part of your monthly mortgage payment. Property taxes and home insurance (and fire, and flood) may be included in your monthly mortgage payment. Additionally, if you had to get private mortgage insurance (PMI), that premium could be added onto your monthly mortgage payment as well. Most people need to add $200 to $500 (possibly even more) to that mortgage calculator estimate in order to get a better idea of how much they will actually pay each month.