When you make biweekly payments, you could save more money on interest and pay your mortgage down faster than you would by making payments once a month. When you decide to make biweekly payments instead of monthly payments, you're using the yearly calendar to your benefit.
"Your loan balance accrues interest every day and reducing that principal balance every 14 days (26 half payments per year) saves more in interest charges than one full additional payment every 12 months, even though the total amount in payments every year remains the same."
Cons Of A Biweekly Mortgage Payment
Often lenders do not offer biweekly services free of charge. You will be required to pay a registration fee as well as paying biweekly charges. If your budget doesn't allow the room to pay more toward your mortgage every year, this could be a foolish move.
With bimonthly payments, you make payments twice a month, while biweekly mortgage payments mean you make payments every other week. As such, making bimonthly payments means you only make 24 payments per year, rather than the 26 payments you'd make on a biweekly schedule.
Paying Your Mortgage Twice Per Month
You have some options to set up this type of payment. You might be able to do this directly through your lender or by using a third-party bill payment service. You can do it on a schedule that pays twice per month, such as on the 15th and the last day of the month.
The benefit of paying additional principal on a mortgage isn't just in reducing the monthly interest expense a tiny bit at a time. It comes from paying down your outstanding loan balance with additional mortgage principal payments, which slashes the total interest you'll owe over the life of the loan.
Paying extra on a mortgage may help reduce the amount of interest paid over time, in addition to the total amount of time it takes to pay back your mortgage.
Both generally tend to be better than paying monthly. Synchronising your mortgage repayment frequency with how often you get paid is a great way to help you to budget. If you get paid fortnightly, then ask your lender if you can pay your mortgage every two weeks on that day.
Benefits of a lower monthly mortgage payment
Pay off other higher interest rate loans and credit cards faster. Build a nest egg of savings for unexpected expenses and home repairs. Increase savings for education and/or retirement. Better managing increasing costs for property taxes and homeowners insurance.
Generally, the more frequent the payments you make, the more you will save in interest over the term of your mortgage. Whether you choose monthly, fortnightly, or weekly repayments be sure ask your lender for all the calculations before you make a decision.
Biweekly payments accelerate your mortgage payoff by paying 1/2 of your normal monthly payment every two weeks. By the end of each year, you will have paid the equivalent of 13 monthly payments instead of 12. This simple technique can shave years off your mortgage and save you thousands of dollars in interest.
The main advantage of regular monthly overpayments is that it's more predictable. In fact, you can simply factor in the extra cost to your monthly budget. If you decide you can't afford your overpayments, you can reduce or stop them at any time and go back to your original monthly mortgage repayment.
Tens of thousands of dollars can be saved by making bi-weekly mortgage payments and enables the homeowner to pay off the mortgage almost eight years early with a savings of 23% of 30% of total interest costs.
Pay a lump sum toward the principal balance
Making a lump sum payment toward your mortgage will decrease what you owe and save money on interest. If you receive some sort of windfall, such as an inheritance or a large tax refund, you can also consider making a lump sum payment toward your mortgage.
Paying off your monthly statement balances in full within your grace period is one of the best ways to avoid getting into credit card debt. As long as you pay off your balance before your grace period expires, you can make purchases on your credit card without paying interest.
Paying Off Your Mortgage Early
You owe less in interest as you pay down your principal, which is the amount of money you originally borrowed. At the end of your loan, a much larger percentage of your payment goes toward principal.
Is it better to overpay your mortgage monthly or by lump sum? Making one large lump sum payment instead of gradually overpaying each month will help lower your mortgage balance faster and save you more in interest.
The 28% rule
To determine how much you can afford using this rule, multiply your monthly gross income by 28%. For example, if you make $10,000 every month, multiply $10,000 by 0.28 to get $2,800. Using these figures, your monthly mortgage payment should be no more than $2,800.
Effect of paying an extra $1 a day
You would save about $5,470 in interest (paying about $286,480 rather than $291,950).
Since there are 26 fortnights in a year, you will be making an equivalent of 13 monthly repayments instead of the usual 12. That extra amount comes directly off your loan principal and reduces the amount on which future interest will be calculated.
In other words: a weekly payment can help you pay slightly less interest over the life of your loan when compared to a fortnightly payment or monthly loan payments. A fortnightly or monthly repayment will pay down your principal amount less frequently, while the interest will still be calculated daily.
If you pay $100 extra each month towards principal, you can cut your loan term by more than 4.5 years and reduce the interest paid by more than $26,500. If you pay $200 extra a month towards principal, you can cut your loan term by more than 8 years and reduce the interest paid by more than $44,000.