Origination Fee

See: Origination.

When you start the process of getting a loan or a mortgage, sometimes there's a fee you have to pay. It's meant to cover the cost of the process (the man hours that go into filing paperwork and hassling you to send all your documentation). Also, the origination fee tends to weed out the riff-raff and the lookie-loos who might otherwise clog up the process and waste the bankers' time.