All loans are setup to collect a payment from you once a month. That
means you are making 12 payments each year. Interest is added to your
loan based on the balance you owe and the rate per your original
contract. So, for example, If you have a loan for $100,000 and your
interest rate is 4% for the first month you are going to add to your
balance $400.00 or 4% of the $100,000 loan balance. Each month you’ll
add 4% of whatever the remaining balance is. If you really want to save
your thousands of dollars and cut years off your mortgage you want to
reduce the principal balance so the interest charges are less.
How does it work?
There are 12 months in a year, and in every year there is 52 weeks. If
you pay mortgage payment with a Bi-Weekly program you pay 26 payments of
one-half your payment instead of 12 regular payments. This results in
two additional half payments each year or one full payment. The extra
payment goes towards the principal of the loan. By reducing the loan
balance the homeowner is also reducing the interest charges. By paying
like this your loan will have less interest costs and the term of the
loan will be reduced.
How much you can save?
On a $200,000 mortgage at 5%, you’ll cut the total term by about five
years and shave off more than $34,000 in interest costs. This is not
some magic formula. Rather, it’s careful and diligent planning which
achieves a reduction of the principal balance.
Most lenders won’t accept a Bi-Weekly payment. They want to process your mortgage payments on a monthly basis.
Do it yourself Biweekly Payments
If the lender does not allow homeowner for Bi-Weekly program but the
homeowner is interested in paying the loan off early, then he can open a
bank account and he has to made arrangement for the mortgage payments
to come out every month in two bi-weekly payments. And at the end of the
year, the homeowner can write a check on the account for an amount that
will be the same as the monthly payment and sent into the lender. Or, a
customer can simply pay extra payments throughout the year. However,
the easiest way is to contract with a Bi-Weekly Payment Program and let
that company manage this account for you. The results will be achieved
by following the program and for the small cost of enrollment you can
achieve substantial results.
Myth for Biweekly Payments
Paying your mortgage twice a month gives you better credit: This is
wrong, bank often use an automatic bank draft, which means all your
mortgage biweekly payments will be made on time. But if you want you can
get the same effect on a monthly payment plan using automatic bank
draft.
Advantage of Mortgage Biweekly Payment
Below are the few things which Biweekly payments can do