Biweekly payments mean you pay off your loan 4 years and 3 months early by making the equivalent of one extra payment per year. Not only will switching to biweekly payments save you time on the life of your loan, but it can also save thousands in payments and interest.
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.
With a bi-weekly payment schedule, you'll own your home in 13.5 years and save $4,193 on interest compared to making the monthly payment over 15 years.
Doubling the amount of each scheduled payment that goes towards principal -- whether you are on a schedule of monthly or bi-weekly payments -- can reduce the life of your loan by almost 50 percent.
But if you make biweekly mortgage payments, you will be making what equates to 13 monthly payments each year. Assuming a 6.5% interest rate and biweekly payments of $252, you would pay off your mortgage in a little over 24 years, or about six years early.
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. ... While each payment is equal to half the monthly amount, you end up paying an extra month per year with this method.
There are 52 weeks in the year which provides 26 bi-weekly payments. This is equivalent to 13 monthly payments, or essentially one extra payment a year.
Set up a biweekly payment schedule
Some lenders will let you set up your payment schedule this way. You pay half your mortgage every other week, which adds up to one whole extra payment per year. This is because there are 52 weeks per year, which is 26 half-payments, or 13 full payments.
3. Make one extra mortgage payment each year. Making an extra mortgage payment each year could reduce the term of your loan significantly. ... For example, by paying $975 each month on a $900 mortgage payment, you'll have paid the equivalent of an extra payment by the end of the year.
A biweekly mortgage payment schedule makes a payment on your mortgage every two weeks instead of once a month. You can use your current lender to switch to biweekly payments or create a schedule yourself.
If your lender allows biweekly payments and applies the extra payments directly to your principal, you can simply send half your mortgage payment every two weeks. If your monthly payment is $2,000, for instance, you can send $1,000 biweekly.
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.
Accelerated weekly and bi-weekly payments
Since you pay 26 bi-weekly payments, by the end of a year you have paid the equivalent of one extra monthly payment.
Biweekly pay describes when employees are paid every other week on a specific day of the week. For example, if you want to establish a biweekly pay schedule, you might choose to pay your employees every other Friday. Since every calendar year has 52 weeks, this results in a total of 26 paychecks per year.
By adding $300 to your monthly payment, you'll save just over $64,000 in interest and pay off your home over 11 years sooner. Consider another example. You have a remaining balance of $350,000 on your current home on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage.
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.
Let's say your outstanding balance is $200,000, your interest rate is 5% and you want to pay off the balance in 60 payments – five years. In Excel, the formula is PMT(interest rate/number of payments per year,total number of payments,outstanding balance). So, for this example you would type =PMT(. 05/12,60,200000).
Paying an extra $1,000 per month would save a homeowner a staggering $320,000 in interest and nearly cut the mortgage term in half. To be more precise, it'd shave nearly 12 and a half years off the loan term. The result is a home that is free and clear much faster, and tremendous savings that can rarely be beat.