We are an independent, advertising-supported comparison service. Our goal is to help you make smarter financial decisions by providing you with interactive tools and financial calculators, publishing original and objective content, by enabling you to conduct research and compare information for free - so that you can make financial decisions with confidence.
Bankrate has partnerships with issuers including, but not limited to, American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Citi and Discover.
The offers that appear on this site are from companies that compensate us. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site, including, for example, the order in which they may appear within the listing categories, except where prohibited by law for our mortgage, home equity and other home lending products. But this compensation does not influence the information we publish, or the reviews that you see on this site. We do not include the universe of companies or financial offers that may be available to you.
Checkmark Expert verified
Bankrate logoHow is this page expert verified?
At Bankrate, we take the accuracy of our content seriously.
“Expert verified” means that our Financial Review Board thoroughly evaluated the article for accuracy and clarity. The Review Board comprises a panel of financial experts whose objective is to ensure that our content is always objective and balanced.
Their reviews hold us accountable for publishing high-quality and trustworthy content.
Written by
Laurie Richards
Edited by
Troy Segal
Troy Segal is a senior editor for Bankrate. She edits stories about mortgages and home equity, along with the finer financial points of owning and maintaining a home.
Reviewed by
Chloe Moore, CFP®
Chloe Moore, CFP®, is the founder of Financial Staples, a virtual, fee-only financial planning firm based in Atlanta and serving clients nationwide.
At Bankrate we strive to help you make smarter financial decisions. While we adhere to strict editorial integrity , this post may contain references to products from our partners. Here's an explanation for how we make money .
Bankrate logoFounded in 1976, Bankrate has a long track record of helping people make smart financial choices. We’ve maintained this reputation for over four decades by demystifying the financial decision-making process and giving people confidence in which actions to take next.
Bankrate follows a strict editorial policy, so you can trust that we’re putting your interests first. All of our content is authored by highly qualified professionals and edited by subject matter experts, who ensure everything we publish is objective, accurate and trustworthy.
Our mortgage reporters and editors focus on the points consumers care about most — the latest rates, the best lenders, navigating the homebuying process, refinancing your mortgage and more — so you can feel confident when you make decisions as a homebuyer and a homeowner.
Bankrate logoBankrate follows a strict editorial policy, so you can trust that we’re putting your interests first. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions.
We value your trust. Our mission is to provide readers with accurate and unbiased information, and we have editorial standards in place to ensure that happens. Our editors and reporters thoroughly fact-check editorial content to ensure the information you’re reading is accurate. We maintain a firewall between our advertisers and our editorial team. Our editorial team does not receive direct compensation from our advertisers.
Bankrate’s editorial team writes on behalf of YOU – the reader. Our goal is to give you the best advice to help you make smart personal finance decisions. We follow strict guidelines to ensure that our editorial content is not influenced by advertisers. Our editorial team receives no direct compensation from advertisers, and our content is thoroughly fact-checked to ensure accuracy. So, whether you’re reading an article or a review, you can trust that you’re getting credible and dependable information.
Bankrate logoYou have money questions. Bankrate has answers. Our experts have been helping you master your money for over four decades. We continually strive to provide consumers with the expert advice and tools needed to succeed throughout life’s financial journey.
Bankrate follows a strict editorial policy, so you can trust that our content is honest and accurate. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions. The content created by our editorial staff is objective, factual, and not influenced by our advertisers.
We’re transparent about how we are able to bring quality content, competitive rates, and useful tools to you by explaining how we make money.
Bankrate.com is an independent, advertising-supported publisher and comparison service. We are compensated in exchange for placement of sponsored products and services, or by you clicking on certain links posted on our site. Therefore, this compensation may impact how, where and in what order products appear within listing categories, except where prohibited by law for our mortgage, home equity and other home lending products. Other factors, such as our own proprietary website rules and whether a product is offered in your area or at your self-selected credit score range, can also impact how and where products appear on this site. While we strive to provide a wide range of offers, Bankrate does not include information about every financial or credit product or service.
Our writers and editors used an in-house natural language generation platform to assist with portions of this article, allowing them to focus on adding information that is uniquely helpful. The article was reviewed, fact-checked and edited by our editorial staff prior to publication.
Most homeowners make their mortgage payments once a month. However, unless you have a prepayment penalty — and that’s unlikely — you can chip away at your outstanding balance on a more frequent basis. With a biweekly mortgage payment plan, you can make half your normal monthly payment every two weeks and pay down your mortgage faster.
Biweekly mortgage payments involve making half of your monthly payment every two weeks rather than the full payment once per month. This effectively equates to 26 biweekly payments per year, totaling 13 full monthly payments, rather than 12. As long as you confirm with your lender or servicer, the additional payment will apply to your loan’s principal balance, help you pay off your mortgage sooner and save on interest.
With biweekly mortgage payments, instead of making a full payment once per month, you’ll make half your monthly payment every other week. Since there are 52 weeks in a year, this means you’ll make 26 half-payments, or 13 full payments, per year.
Let’s say you buy a $350,000 home with 10 percent down, financed with a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage at 7 percent. Your first mortgage payment would look like this:
| Monthly payment | Principal | Interest |
|---|---|---|
| $2,095 | $257.50 | $1,837.50 |
To make this a biweekly payment, you’d simply cut the $2,095 monthly payment in half and pay that — $1,047.50 — every two weeks.
At that rate, by the end of the year, you’d have paid $27,235 — $2,095 more than what you would have paid if you had made payments once a month. That extra payment, though, goes entirely toward your principal, adding up to significant savings in interest and a much faster payoff:
| Payment frequency | Interest total | Payoff time |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly payments | $439,453 | 30 years |
| Biweekly payments | $327,470 | 23 years |
You can crunch your own numbers with our biweekly mortgage payment calculator.
Contact your mortgage servicer (this might or might not be your lender — here’s how to check). If your lender allows biweekly payments and applies the extra payments directly to your principal, you can simply send half your mortgage payment every two weeks. If your monthly payment is $2,000, for instance, you can send $1,000 biweekly.
To ensure your biweekly mortgage payment plan works the way you intend it to, confirm that:
Lastly, keep in mind your total monthly mortgage payment often includes property taxes and homeowners insurance premiums. Make sure to ask your lender if these payments would inflate your escrow cushion.
Money tip: Don’t rely on a third-party company to manage your biweekly payments. You could be on the hook for fees, or the company might not make the payments according to a biweekly schedule.
If paying your mortgage biweekly isn’t a good option for you but you still want to pay off your mortgage faster, consider these alternatives:
You can also opt for bimonthly mortgage payments rather than biweekly payments. With bimonthly payments, you’ll pay half of your mortgage payment on two scheduled days each month — for example, the 1st and 15th — totaling 24 payments each year. Making additional payments each month can help pay off your mortgage faster, but the savings with the bimonthly plan will be slightly smaller than with the biweekly plan since a month is generally longer than four weeks (28 days).
Finally, you can also divide your monthly payment by 12 and park that amount in a savings account each month. Then, at the end of the year, you can send the accumulated amount to your lender as an extra payment that goes solely toward the principal.
The decision to make biweekly or monthly mortgage payments boils down to your financial wherewithal and how you feel about debt. If you want to chisel away at your mortgage balance and have the means to do so, biweekly payments might sound appealing. If you’re comfortable with the concept of a mortgage as a healthy type of debt, then stick to monthly payments. And bear in mind that paying off your mortgage at a faster pace means taking money away from other financial obligations.
If done right, making biweekly mortgage payments leads to less interest paid over the life of your loan, saving you money and whittling your balance down sooner. However, you must confirm that the extra payments are being applied to the principal and that you’re not subject to prepayment penalties.
No, not all lenders accept biweekly mortgage payments. So, if you’re considering paying your mortgage twice a month, check with your lender beforehand to make sure they allow it. If they do, you should also confirm that the extra payments will go toward your principal.
Some mortgages carry a prepayment penalty if you pay off your loan ahead of schedule or if you pay off more than 20 percent of your balance within one year, as biweekly payments could help you do. Lenders may also charge an enrollment fee when you sign up for their biweekly payment plan or transaction fees for each payment. If you use a third-party service to process your mortgage payments, that company may charge service fees as well.
It’s easy to switch back if you manage your own biweekly mortgage payments (either by paying extra each month or making one additional principal payment at the end of the year). In that case, you could just stop overpaying each month or skip the extra payment.
However, it’s not quite as simple if you’re on a biweekly payment plan through your lender or servicer. Some of these plans are permanent agreements, so switching back to monthly payments won’t be an option. If you’re unsure, contact the company that runs your plan.
Additional reporting by Taylor Freitas
