As stated above, PMI is essentially an additional payment as part of your mortgage that acts as insurance for the lender of a mortgage if the borrower stops paying back their loan.
If you do need to pay PMI, your lender, not you, will choose the provider of the PMI. In most cases, you won’t know the provider as you make the payment directly to your lender, and they will pass the PMI portion along to the PMI provider.
PMI payments can be paid in a few ways depending on PMI type (more on that below). Your lender may let you choose how you pay your PMI, and others will make that decision for you.
The first step in calculating PMI is to determine if you’ll need to pay it in the first place. Take your down payment, divide it by the home’s purchase price, then multiply by 100.
The factors above will generally give you a good idea of how much PMI you’ll be paying for any particular situation. Still, other factors can affect your PMI payment amount as well.