Zillow Advice: Mortgage - Paying a mortgage on a weekly/bi-weekly basis versus monthly

Yes, I am referring to a ...

Tue, 19 May 2009 02:34:00 GMT

Yes, I am referring to a bi-monthly plan, stated above, only saving 1 month payment in 30 yrs, not bi-weekly.

Clay-- It says ...

Tue, 19 May 2009 01:32:00 GMT

Clay--

It says "upfront commisions" on the link. I think thats if you deal with an agent in the field. I'm speaking of calling direct. If you play with the calculators its more than 1 payment thats saved. When I ran the calculator on a 15 year, ~3 years was trimmed off.

Alison can call and find out for herself. They are located in Seattle. Maybe she can stop by on her way home from Zillow World Headquarters.

Chip, if there is no fee, ...

Tue, 19 May 2009 01:02:00 GMT

Chip, if there is no fee, how do they pay commisions? See Consultant page. A Bi Monthly program would only save 1 payment out of 360 payments so no one needs that pgm :)

http://www.bwma.com/consultant/index.php

BWMACheck these guys out. ...

Tue, 19 May 2009 00:05:00 GMT

BWMA

Check these guys out. I spoke with the owner 3 weeks ago. Super nice guy that helped invent the bimonthly/biweekly program. I have a couple refinancing that swear by the program. This site even has a calculator to figure out how much you will save. No enrollment fee. $1.70 per transaction. They tried to give me a referral fee, but I refused. Its a $50 gift certificate to a chain restaurant. Tell them I referred you and they'll send the gift certificate to you.

Thanks everyone for your ...

Mon, 18 May 2009 22:47:00 GMT

Thanks everyone for your replies. I kicked myself for not asking questions before I got my original mortgage and therefore got into a bad deal. Thank goodness I was able to refi recently but now I ask questions before making any move....

Thanks again!

The main reason I don't use ...

Mon, 18 May 2009 18:51:00 GMT

The main reason I don't use the bi-weekly approach is that it locks you into the payments. If you have the discipline to make extra principal payments, you can achieve the same results on your own with the added flexibility of making "only the normal payment" when needed.

Since you say you "will only be in the house for a few more years", it might be a better idea to set up a separate savings account and make the "extra payment" into that. Given your short horizon and the current market, it would be better to have that extra money more easily accessible.

The real "win" in making the extra payments is for those who plan to stay in the house for an extended period of time. By paying down the principal, you save on interest over the life of the loan and can shorten the payoff period. Since your planning on selling/moving in the next few years, your plans don't align with the idea of putting the money against the loan - I'd put it aside in a more accessible vehicle.

If you plan to live in the ...

Mon, 18 May 2009 18:31:00 GMT

If you plan to live in the house only for a couple of years, it would not make much sense. Anyway extra payments would increase your equity in the house. Keep track of the extra payments and see if it reflected in your statements. Do it yourself and avoid the service fee!! This is not rocket science.

you can essentially accomplish ...

Mon, 18 May 2009 17:59:00 GMT

you can essentially accomplish the same result by paying a bit extra every month or adding an extra payment ( or more ) into the mix every calender yr

if you notice on those solicitatiosn you mention , these always seems to be a fee ( which is pretty high in my opinion) associated with this " service " ... thus I am of the opinion this is a " scam "

There is probably a fee to ...

Mon, 18 May 2009 17:58:00 GMT

There is probably a fee to set it up so you can avoid that and do it yourself. The BiWeekly plan pays 13 payments per year so you can take your payment,divide by 12, and add that to your payments as additional principal ( send a seperate check ).