Call your servicer and ask. If your loan allows it, removal is usually a payment-history review, a refund of the escrow balance, and the bills become yours. The servicer looks at whether you have paid on time, and if they approve the request, they close the account, refund whatever is sitting in it, and hand you responsibility for paying the insurance renewal and property tax bills directly and on schedule. First, check whether your loan allows it at all: - FHA requires escrow for taxes, insurance, and mortgage insurance regardless of down payment, so on an FHA loan the account generally cannot be removed. - VA has no program rule requiring escrow, but the account is usually there because the lender requires it, and that is the lender's call. - Conventional loans generally require escrow while the loan sits above 80 percent of the home's value. Below that, waiving is a lender and investor decision, commonly available once you have more than 10 percent equity in the deal. Then be honest with yourself about discipline. Once the account is gone, those large tax and insurance bills are yours to save for and pay on time, with no cushion held on your behalf. If you know you will set the money aside, removing escrow gives you control of the cash in the meantime. If you would rather not track it, leaving the account in place is the safer default.