The par rate is the zero-point rate: what a lender offers on a given day without charging points or paying you a credit. Pay points and you buy the rate below par. Accept a rate above par and the lender pays you a credit you can put toward closing costs. Our lean: the par rate is the honest baseline, and we're biased against paying points as a default. A lender whose opening quote already bakes in points deserves a hard look. Above-par with a credit can make sense when cash is tight or a refinance seems reasonably likely, since you haven't sunk money into a rate you may not keep. Buying below par should be your informed choice for a specific reason, usually a long expected hold. The break-even is simple to run: divide the cost of the points by the monthly savings, and that's roughly how many months you'd need to keep the loan for the buydown to pay for itself. Nobody can promise where rates go, so anchor the decision to your timeline, never to a forecast. The points-versus-credit side-by-side is something some people want to see, and we'll run that comparison for you in the free Roadmap conversation (about 20 minutes) with your real numbers.