Are Bi-Weekly Mortgage Payments a Good Idea?

If you can afford it then definitely do it.

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Trying to decided whether it's a good idea to do bi-weekly payments or just do monthly payments. I've also heard that paying more than the monthly payment goes straight to principal. Any advice helps.

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I may have it wrong, but I believe some (most?) mortgages will not apply partial payments until a full payment is received. In that case, paying an extra payment to just start the year would be more effective.

That being said, paying anything more than the minimum payment on a house in this rate environment seems foolish.

Correct it usually sits in suspense until the amount of the regular payment is received, then it would be applied. I would only pay more than minimum payment right now if you have no short term debt, even then i would rather throw it in a mutual fund than make extra payments-unless your interest rate is really high (not likely).

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Trying to decided whether it's a good idea to do bi-weekly payments or just do monthly payments. I've also heard that paying more than the monthly payment goes straight to principal. Any advice helps.

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This may vary by lender (mine is US Bank), but I can just go into the online portal, and it gives me the option to pay extra towards the principal.

When I last had a car payment (with Wells Fargo), I could do the same, although there was a payment limit at one time, so I had to do it a couple of times to pay off my loan.

So I’m guessing most lenders have that option, unless they have a really poor and outdated online portal, but in that case you can probably call them.

Personally, I think it’s just easier to add the amount to the monthly payment, then trying to mess with biweekly payments. And since mortgages are on a monthly interest schedule (whereas a lot of other loans and credit are daily), X amount extra put towards principal in a given month isn’t going to get paid off quicker regardless of how many payments you make in that month.

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Why pay down cheap debt in an inflationary environment??

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Knock down that principle on the loan faster so if you sell it that's more money in your pocket Duh

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Knock down that principle on the loan faster so if you sell it that's more money in your pocket Duh

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Not sure if serious.

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I only have one house payment (I’m assuming at least one of your’s is a rental), and I have no desire to pay more, and if I could I would take out a 50 year mortgage, assuming the higher interest rate reflects the longer timeline.

Of course, if interest rates were higher, like in the 80’s I would not have the same view. But besides being able to get better returns elsewhere, I really have an aversion to liquidity risk.

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You are not wrong, but the vast majority of Americans have no ability to understand, much less perform, borrowing money to invest and making money on the spread.

Topics like this are where what is best for the intelligent people on the MT may not be what is best for the average American.

It's hard to argue for most people that paying down debt isn't a good idea.

I generally don’t make it a priority to pay off low interest loans in a hurry unless it gets paid down to where I want to just knock it out.

To me there’s not much sense in it unless it’s not manageable in the existing budget.

Verify that you aren’t being charged a fee to set up bi weekly payments. There are some companies who offer this service for a fee. It’s something you can easily do on your own at no cost.

"You’ll never miss that $100 but you will definitely spend it if you don’t put it towards the payment."

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YOU will definitely spend it....