If your lender is going to handle your payment like that, you’ll need to use a different strategy, as discussed below.Īnother concern you might have is whether your loan has a prepayment penalty. Some lenders won’t accept them at all, and others will hold them until you’ve sent in enough for a full payment. The mortgage paperwork you signed when you took out your home loan should specify whether your lender will apply partial payments. If an unexpected bill arises, you don’t want to be caught off guard and have to borrow money to pay it after putting all your extra cash toward your home loan. Prepaying your mortgage doesn’t make sense unless you have a robust emergency fund with at least six months of expenses saved up. Retiring those debts faster will likely have a greater financial benefit in the near term. Putting extra money toward your mortgage (or auto loan) won’t save you as much as putting extra money toward your student loan or credit card which have higher interest rates. Let’s say your mortgage interest rate is 4% and your other debts include an auto loan at 2%, a student loan at 6% and a credit card at 16%. Now that you know the pros and cons of making biweekly mortgage payments, you can evaluate how this strategy applies to your situation. Is a Biweekly Mortgage Payment Right for Me? If you don’t have your closing disclosure or if you took out your loan back when lenders used HUD-1 statements, contact your mortgage servicer to ask about their biweekly payment policy or look on its website. Check page 4 of your mortgage closing disclosure to see if your lender will apply partial payments to your loan. The only way to access cash faster is with a new loan: a cash-out refinance, a home equity loan or a home equity line of credit (HELOC). Once you pay extra mortgage principal, you can’t just ask your lender to give it back if you’re short on cash. Increased borrowing costs if you need the money later.Saving for retirement, paying off debt or even taking a vacation to visit family might be better uses of your money. More frequent mortgage payments means less money for other things. You might find it easier to manage your income and expenses by matching them up this way, especially if your housing payment is your largest expense. If you get paid biweekly, you might prefer to pay your mortgage biweekly as well. Using the previous examples, you’d pay off your loan in about 25.5 years and a little over 26 years, respectively. Accumulate equity faster by paying more principal and you’ll be mortgage free sooner. If you have a $200,000 mortgage at 3% for 30 years, biweekly payments will save you $14,280. If you have a $300,000 mortgage at 4% for 30 years, biweekly payments will save you $35,000 in interest payments. The higher your interest rate and the more you’ve borrowed, the more you could save. But your plan might not work out as well as you expect if you don’t understand how to manage the downsides. Paying less interest and getting out of debt faster are enticing reasons to make biweekly mortgage payments. Pros and Cons of Biweekly Mortgage Payments
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