by: Sameer S Panjwani

So you have a mortgage on your home or planning to get one? Here's something to consider if you want to reduce your interest payment and save on thousands of dollars. Consider going in for a bi-weekly mortgage payment plan.

So, what is a bi-weekly mortgage payment plan? The difference in this type of mortgage plan lies in the frequency of payments. Out here you make your payments every two weeks instead of every month. By going in with such a payment plan, you end up paying for the 52 weeks in a year, i.e. 1 month more than the otherwise 12 payments you would make with the monthly plan (52 / 4 = 13 payments in a year). You may think why pay extra? But the benefits are there for all to see. By going in for such a mortgage plan, you are reducing the tenure of your loan as well as continuously reducing the principal and interest which has to be repaid.

An illustration to show what we mean - Suppose you were to go in for a mortgage of $150,000 for a term of 360 months at an interest rate of 6%, your monthly payment would work out to $899.93 and your total interest through out the tenure of the loan would work out to $173,757. Now consider the same mortgage taken on a bi-weekly payment plan. Your bi-weekly payments would be of $449.67 while your total interest for the entire tenure would work out to only $135,294 + you end up completing the loan in 24 years instead of 30. Huge difference!

The savings from such a payment plan are huge and are worth considering if you can afford to make the payments every two weeks. At least, keep it as an option!