Buying A Home
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Mortgage options...help!

We have been living in our new home for about 3 weeks now and we have loved EVERY second of it. We received a letter in the mail giving us the option of paying our mortgage biweekly instead of once a month. According to this letter, paying the same amount biweekly (not adding anything extra monthly) will shave off 7 years on our loan and save us tens of thousand of dollars. Is anyone else out there paying biweekly? Can anyone point out to me a disadvantage in doing this? It seems like a great option but maybe some of you know something I don't? 

Re: Mortgage options...help!

  • We are doing the Mortgage Acceleration Program, (MAP), with our bank.  We pay half the mortgage payment biweekly into that account and then on the first of the month our full mortgage gets paid from the MAP account.  You end up paying one extra payment every year and that is how you save all of the money on the loan. 
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  • It is absolutely a great option and that is certainly true.  Unfortunately, my bank doesn't have a program like that NOR do they allow me to split my mortgage in half and pay one-half at the at the mid month mark and the other half at the beginning of the month mark (with the whole thing still being on time for the first of the month).  You can also cut about 10 years off your mortgage doing that because, in essence, you are paying half your mortgage two weeks early every month and that saves a lot of interest.

    According to them, most banks don't allow it, but I'm thinking I might need to revisit this issue.

  • That does seem like a really great option! We are looking for our first home but THANK YOU for posting this because this is an option I am definitely going to look into! :)
  • We do that. It does save you money on your mortgage over time and does shave years off the loan. The only drawback we have seen is that paying biweekly means that in two months every year you will have three mortgage payments instead of two.

    It is just how the payment schedule works out with 52 weeks in the year and 26 payments (it's 26 [instead of 24] because you're making a 13th monthly payment). So in those two months you will need to plan for that third payment.

  • YES!!! This is a great option. I know not all places offer it. In addition to paying it off sooner, you will save a lot in interest. I can't really think of any disadvantages except for what has been mentioned, 1 extra payment a year, but you can just pay attention to the calendar and adjust for it.
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  • Another way to make an extra payment every year is to divide your normal monthly mortgage payment by 12 and then add that extra amount to your principal each month.

    I do that with my car loans.  On a 5-year car loan, if you make two extra payments/year, you will roughly cut one year off of your loan.  I find spreading that amount over an entire year adds an almost unnoticeable amount to my payment, but then feels like a huge bonus when I can subtract my car payment out of my budget a year early. 

  • Great advice everyone! We are going to go forward with this bi-weekly payment option and to make it even better, we are going to put $200 dollars extra per month to shave off even more time and interest off of our loan. Thanks again for the opinions.
  • Another way to make an extra payment every year is to divide your normal monthly mortgage payment by 12 and then add that extra amount to your principal each month.

    I do that with my car loans.  On a 5-year car loan, if you make two extra payments/year, you will roughly cut one year off of your loan.  I find spreading that amount over an entire year adds an almost unnoticeable amount to my payment, but then feels like a huge bonus when I can subtract my car payment out of my budget a year early. 

    This is also a great option.
  • Whether or not this is a good deal depends largely on the specific terms. This article is a little dated but still pretty good at laying out the pros and cons. http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/mtg/20010920a.asp
  • Be sure as well if you do not do the bi-weekly option but want to make extra payments that they be applied towards Principal. Banks will not automatically do this - you need to specify. 

    We put 'spare money' at the end of the month on our mortgage - after the bills, retirement, charity, savings, etc are taken care of. We've shaved a few years off our mortgage this way too. 

    My dad saved all of his change every month - always kept it from paying cash. He would apply it every month at the bank and was able to shave YEARS off and had a huge party when he paid it off last August. His 30yr took 16 years to pay off. We hope to be done much sooner than that with the same concept.

    Another advantage is to remove the PMI off your loan if you will have it. At closing they will give you an expected date that you will have 20% paid off the mortgage to remove it. It's a daunting date. By applying extra towards principal, you will get this paid off faster - leaving you extra money when it's paid off. Use that money towards your mortgage then too! 
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  • Find out how your bank collects interest. Some collect interest through your payment date no matter how early you pay. So if you pay on the 20th and your bill is due on the 1st, you still pay those extra days 10 days of interest. If this is the way your loan is set up, there's no benefit to paying your regular payment early. However, there is always a benefit to paying extra towards your principal as often as you can, no matter how the loan is set up. And if your bank collects interest through the date they receive the payment, it absolutely benefits you to do this, since you would only be paying interest to the 20th and the rest goes to principal. Just call your officer and ask how they collect interest if you don't already know. 
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