Even if you pay your mortgage loan's bill several days early, the lender will still allocate your payment to the loan's agreed-upon principal and interest amounts due each month.
This is a fee your lender charges if you pay off your mortgage prematurely. Prepayment penalties are usually equal to a certain percentage you would have paid in interest. This means that if you pay off your principal very early, you might end up paying the interest you would have paid anyway.
If the payment is received within the grace period, customarily the first 10 or 15 days, the borrower receives a free ride – no interest accrual – for those days. If the payment is received after the grace period but within the month, the borrower is subject to a late charge.
Simple interest mortgages are often promoted with bi-weekly mortgage payment plans to reduce the interest paid. Making a regular monthly payment one week early on a simple interest mortgage will save on interest and pay the mortgage down faster.
On a standard mortgage, the scheduled payment is due the first of the month, but there is a grace period of 10 to 15 days during which the payment can be made and will be credited as if it were paid on the first.
Well, mortgage payments are generally due on the first of the month, every month, until the loan reaches maturity, or until you sell the property. So it doesn't actually matter when your mortgage funds – if you close on the 5th of the month or the 15th, the pesky mortgage is still due on the first.
There is an alternative to monthly payments — making half your monthly payment every two weeks. 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.
Even if lenders credit the payment when it's received, the weekly payment schedule doesn't offer significant savings compared with a bi-weekly schedule.
Using one of these options to pay off your mortgage can give you a false sense of financial security. Unexpected expenses—such as medical costs, needed home repairs, or emergency travel—can destroy your financial standing if you don't have a cash reserve at the ready.
Making additional principal payments will shorten the length of your mortgage term and allow you to build equity faster. Because your balance is being paid down faster, you'll have fewer total payments to make, in-turn leading to more savings.
Paying mortgage payments in advance, known as prepaying, can help you build equity faster, ultimately saving you thousands of dollars in interest charges and helping you become mortgage-free sooner.
It's often more beneficial for newer owners to be aggressive with their mortgage payments. This is because your money is typically going towards the interest on the loan, not the principal itself. This means that any extra payments will reduce the total amount of interest owed over the course of the entire loan.
If your monthly mortgage payment is greater than the interest you are receiving after tax, you will be better off paying off your mortgage. If you have an interest only mortgage, overpaying on the interest will have no effect on reducing your mortgage cost or term.
Paying Your Mortgage Twice Per Month
Say your mortgage is $2,000 per month. By paying $1,000 twice a month, or 24 times per year, you would make a total of $24,000 in payments – the same as you would if you paid monthly.
Throwing in an extra $500 or $1,000 every month won't necessarily help you pay off your mortgage more quickly. Unless you specify that the additional money you're paying is meant to be applied to your principal balance, the lender may use it to pay down interest for the next scheduled payment.
In this scenario, an extra principal payment of $100 per month can shorten your mortgage term by nearly 5 years, saving over $25,000 in interest payments. If you're able to make $200 in extra principal payments each month, you could shorten your mortgage term by eight years and save over $43,000 in interest.
The Biweekly Payment Option
As with the weekly payments, you will end paying off your mortgage more quickly if you pay every other week. If you make 26 payments of $800, you end up paying $20,800, the same amount you would pay making weekly payments, compared to $19,200 for monthly payments.
For most mortgages, the grace period is 15 calendar days. So if your mortgage payment is due on the first of the month, you have until the 16th to make the payment.
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 amount of time varies depending on the lender and other factors, but in most circumstances, a lender usually permits a borrower 15 days from the due date. So, if your mortgage payment is typically due on the 1st of the month, you'd have until the 16th to pay your missed mortgage payment without incurring a penalty.
What are the benefits of being mortgage free? Having more disposable income, and no interest to pay, are just some of the great benefits to being mortgage free. When you pay off your mortgage, you'll have much more money to put into savings, spend on yourself and access when you need it.
One rule of thumb is that you'll need 70% of your pre-retirement yearly salary to live comfortably. That might be enough if you've paid off your mortgage and are in excellent health when you kiss the office good-bye. But if you plan to build your dream house, trot around the globe, or get that Ph.