Pros and Cons of Biweekly Mortgage Payments
Homeowners with a mortgage typically make monthly payments toward the loan principal and interest. But borrowers can choose to make biweekly mortgage payments instead, resulting in 13 full payments over a one-year period.
Opting for this mortgage payment strategy may come with advantages and drawbacks, including impacts on your savings and reducing the interest you pay over the life of the loan. Here’s what to know about the potential pros and cons of making mortgage payments biweekly.
Key Points
• Biweekly mortgage payments can save thousands in interest and build home equity faster.
• Biweekly payments can sometimes have setup fees or lead to a prepayment penalty.
• Borrowers with high mortgage interest rates benefit most.
• An alternative to biweekly payments is increasing monthly payments or making lump-sum payments.
• Biweekly mortgage payments add the equivalent of an extra monthly payment annually.
Understanding Biweekly Mortgage Payments
So how do biweekly mortgage payments work in practice? A biweekly mortgage payment involves a borrower paying half of their monthly payment every two weeks rather than in full each month.
With 52 weeks in a year, these 26 biweekly payments amount to an extra month’s payment every year. Over the course of a 30-year mortgage term, this can help whittle down your mortgage principal — the amount you borrowed to buy your home — and speed up your mortgage repayment by several years.
Before you start making extra or biweekly payments, it’s a good idea to check to make sure you won’t encounter a prepayment penalty for paying off the mortgage before the end of the loan term.
Recommended: Mortgage Repayment Calculator
Pros of Biweekly Mortgage Payments
If you’re looking to pay off your mortgage early, paying the mortgage biweekly could be beneficial. Below are some advantages of paying your mortgage biweekly.
• Save thousands in interest payments over the life of the loan by reducing the accumulation of interest on your mortgage.
• Build home equity faster by making additional payments toward the loan principal.
• If you have private mortgage insurance (PMI), reach 20% equity in your home sooner to cancel PMI and lower your mortgage payment.
• Pay off your mortgage several years in advance, freeing up finances for other financial goals, such as retirement.
Cons of Biweekly Mortgage Payments
Paying off your mortgage early has a lot of appeal, but it’s important to consider the potential disadvantages of biweekly mortgage payments.
Here are some drawbacks of this mortgage repayment strategy to keep in mind.
• Potential risk of facing prepayment penalties if you pay your mortgage off early, depending on the terms of the loan agreement.
• Lenders may charge a fee for setting up biweekly mortgage payments to recoup lost interest from paying off the mortgage early.
• Committing to a biweekly payment plan consumes more of your budget, which can impact your ability to manage the other costs of owning a home and your financial goals.
Recommended: Home Equity Line of Credit
How to Calculate Potential Savings
How much could you save by making mortgage payments biweekly? Here’s an example of how to crunch the numbers and determine how much you could save.
Let’s say you make a 20% down payment on a home and have a $240,000 mortgage principal with a 6.50% interest rate and 30-year loan term. This amounts to a monthly payment of around $1,516, not accounting for property taxes and home insurance. As a biweekly mortgage payment, you’d pay $758.
Every year, this means putting an extra $1,516 toward the mortgage principal on top of your monthly mortgage payments. Here’s how a biweekly vs. monthly mortgage payment breaks down in terms of loan term and potential savings, assuming you begin making biweekly payments from the outset of the loan.
With monthly mortgage payments:
• Monthly payment: $1,516
• Total annual payment: $18,912
• Loan term: 30 years
• Total interest paid: $306,106
With biweekly mortgage payments:
• Biweekly payment: $758
• Total annual payment: $19,708
• Loan term: 24 years
• Total interest paid: $235,609
By setting up biweekly payments from the start, you’d pay off the mortgage six years early and save $70,497 in interest. Even if you have fewer years left on your mortgage, there’s still potential for significant savings on the mortgage interest. (You can use a mortgage calculator to see how much interest you pay over the life of your mortgage.)
Who Benefits Most from Biweekly Payments?
Getting out of debt and paying off a mortgage sooner could be advantageous for any homeowner, but there are some scenarios when it might make more financial sense.
Borrowers with high interest rates on their mortgage could benefit from making biweekly mortgage payments. Putting an extra monthly payment toward the loan principal each year helps diminish how much interest accrues on the mortgage, adding up to considerable savings.
However, it’s important to take a comprehensive look at your finances to determine where extra payments on debt could be the most effective. If you have a personal loan or credit card debt with a higher interest rate than your mortgage rate, you could save more by tackling these high-interest debts first before setting up biweekly mortgage payments.
Since this approach essentially adds an additional monthly payment each year, it’s worth reevaluating your household budget to ensure you can cover the cost without impacting other financial goals. From a budgeting standpoint, making biweekly mortgage payments could be easier for those who have steady income and receive a paycheck every two weeks.
Implementing Biweekly Payments
There are some steps to follow and key considerations when setting up biweekly mortgage payments.
First, reach out to your lender to see if it allows biweekly payments and if you’ll be liable for prepayment penalties. (Fortunately, prepayment penalties are typically limited to instances where a borrower pays off the mortgage within five years or less.)
It’s also worth asking how the lender will apply extra payments if you set up biweekly payments. Specifically, confirm that the extra funds are applied to the mortgage principal rather than interest or your escrow. Note that having the half monthly payment applied right away can lead to more savings than if the lender waits until the second half is received.
Alternatives to Biweekly Mortgage Payments
Biweekly mortgage payments might not work for everyone. If you’re not ready to commit to paying your mortgage biweekly, there are some alternative options that could help save money on mortgage loans.
• Increase your monthly payment: Round up monthly payments to the nearest hundred dollar amount (e.g., paying $1,600 instead of $1,516) to put more money toward the mortgage principal.
• Make a lump-sum payment: Apply a tax refund, extra savings, or bonus as a one-off payment toward the principal when it makes sense for your budget.
• Mortgage refinance: Reduce your mortgage term from 30 years to 15 years to save on interest, though this will result in a larger monthly payment.
The Takeaway
Paying off your mortgage early with biweekly payments could save you thousands in interest and shorten your mortgage term by several years. But first, it’s worth paying off other high-interest debt and checking how your lender applies extra payments before committing to this payoff strategy.
Looking for an affordable option for a home mortgage loan? SoFi can help: We offer low down payments (as little as 3% - 5%*) with our competitive and flexible home mortgage loans. Plus, applying is extra convenient: It's online, with access to one-on-one help.
FAQ
Can I switch to biweekly payments on an existing mortgage?
You may be able to switch an existing mortgage to biweekly payments, but you’ll need to check with your lender first. Otherwise, making payments every two weeks may not get applied to the mortgage principal as intended.
Will biweekly payments affect my taxes or escrow?
Biweekly payments do not affect your taxes, but it’s a good idea to verify that the appropriate amount is going to escrow from each mortgage payment.
What if I can’t make a biweekly payment occasionally?
Missing a biweekly payment or any mortgage payment could involve late fees and harm your credit score. To avoid these risks, reach out to your lender as soon as possible to discuss options.
Photo credit: iStock/anchiy
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Financial Tips & Strategies: The tips provided on this website are of a general nature and do not take into account your specific objectives, financial situation, and needs. You should always consider their appropriateness given your own circumstances.
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