The check digits enable the sending bank (or its customer) to perform a sanity check of the routing destination and account number from a single string of data at the time of data entry.
Generally, interest rates on FHA-backed mortgages are competitive with conventional mortgages. A quick scan of interest rates for 2012 reveals that FHA mortgages feature rates of about 3.33 percent. The FHA states that the average interest rate for a 30-year fixed loan on a single-family home is about 4.06 percent.
FHA Upfront Funding Fee. Since 2010, the FHA Upfront Funding Fee is 2.25 percent of your new mortgage amount, but it can change. Multiply your mortgage amount by the prevailing fee percentage to calculate your Upfront Funding Fee. For example, if your new mortgage amount is $200,000, your FHA Upfront Funding Fee is $4,500 ($200,000 x .0225). FHA allows you to pay this fee in cash at closing or add it to your mortgage balance, to be paid over time.