Bi-Weekly Mortgage Payment Calculator

Is it better to make bi-weekly mortgage payments? You can quickly find the answer by comparing a bi-weekly mortgage to an alternative schedule using our bi-weekly mortgage payment calculator. In addition, you can check how an extra principal payment would affect your schedule and interest cost so you can apply our tool as a bi-weekly mortgage calculator with extra payments as well.

To sum up, you can make any of the following comparisons:

• Bi-weekly vs. semi-monthly mortgage payments;
• Bi-weekly vs. monthly payments on a mortgage; and
• Bi-weekly mortgage vs. extra payment.

Read further, and we will give you some advice on how to make bi-weekly mortgage payments and explain the difference between bi-weekly and accelerated bi-weekly mortgage payments. Of course, we will also explain how to apply this bi-weekly mortgage payment calculator with additional payments.

If you would like to check other ways to speed up your repayment, check our mortgage acceleration calculator, where you can choose multiple types of repayment frequencies.

The natural question that comes to mind is "How to make bi-weekly mortgage payments to pay off the mortgage faster and pay less interest?".

In general, mortgages have a monthly repayment schedule forming twelve equal payments in a year over the whole repayment term. However, you can considerably accelerate your repayment and reduce your interest cost by paying half of the monthly payment every second week, equaling 26 payments in a year.

For example, consider a 30-year mortgage bi-weekly payment with a 6 percent annual interest rate for a $300,000 loan. With this, you should pay near $900 every second week, which is half of the payment you would pay with a monthly repayment schedule. Since there are not exactly two bi-week period within a month, the remained days sum up to an extra monthly payment over a year.

You can read the result in the following table, which you can also check in our bi-weekly mortgage calculator for comparison.

But how do these relatively minor changes make such big a difference?

The crucial point that can make a considerable difference is amortization, a peculiar feature of most loans and mortgages. When your repayment follows an amortization schedule, your periodic payment remains constant, but its interest-principal proportion alters throughout the loan term. More precisely, a larger part of your periodic payments covers the interest due to the high principal amount at the beginning of the repayment period. As you proceed with the repayment, your principal balance drops gradually, which lowers the interest payment, making a faster reduction in the loan balance possible. You can learn about it more in our amortization calculator.

By boosting the payment frequency and paying a bit more through a bi-weekly mortgage, you accelerate the principal balance reduction, leading to a faster payoff and lower interest charges. Use our bi-weekly mortgage payment calculator with extra payments to check it in practice.

To conclude, it is worth choosing a bi-weekly mortgage if you can afford it. However, you must always check additional fees, extra costs, and possible differences in interest rates or APR to make the right decision.

To run the accelerated bi-weekly mortgage calculator with extra payments and find out, e.g., what a 20-year mortgage bi-weekly payments could be, you need to specify the following parameters of your mortgage loans:

1. Bi-weekly mortgage inputs

• Mortgage amount - Enter either the remaining balance or the original loan value in the case of a new loan.
• Mortgage term - The remaining or original loan term.
• Interest rate - Yearly rate of interest or APR.
• Extra payment - The additional amount you pay in a given payment period. Use this option for a bi-weekly mortgage calculator with additional principal payments.

In advanced mode you can access the following parameters:

• Mortgage points - Upfront payment as a percentage of the loan amount.
• Upfront fee - Additional upfront payment.
• Compounding frequency - How often the interest is computed on the outstanding principle.

2. Payment summary

• Comparison with... - The bi-weekly mortgage payment calculator offers the following four options for comparison:
  • Monthly payments for bi-weekly vs. monthly payments on a mortgage;
  • Semi-monthly (bi-monthly) payments for bi-weekly vs. bi-monthly mortgage payments;
  • Bi-weekly payments for bi-weekly mortgage vs. extra payment; and
  • Weekly payments.

After setting all parameters, you will immediately see the results in the summary table, in which you can check how your interest and repayment term would change by making bi-weekly mortgage payments. With all this information provided by the extra payment bi-weekly mortgage calculator, it will be easy to see if is it better to make bi-weekly mortgage payments.

While standard bi-weekly mortgage means half of the monthly payment 24 times, accelerated bi-weekly mortgage requires the same payment but 26 times in a year.

The standard bi-weekly mortgage results in the same amount of money paid in a given year, with accelerated bi-weekly mortgage you pay an extra monthly payment per year, leading to a faster mortgage amortization and lower interest cost.

Note that in the US, the two mortgage schemes identically refer to the accelerated amortization schedule, as opposed to Canada, where they associate with different schedules.

Let's say you want to take a $200,000 mortgage with 3 percent interest.

By paying $554,60 bi-weekly instead of $1.109,20 monthly, you can save $7.509,82 and fully pay off your mortgage in 18 years instead of 20 years.

If you take a mortgage, then:

1. Monthly schedule means 12 payments in a year.
2. Bi-weekly mortgage requires 26 payments of half of the monthly payment.
3. The additional two payments give an extra monthly payment in a year.
4. The extra yearly payments accelerate the amortization schedule, leading to lower interest costs.

The accelerated bi-weekly mortgage requires half of a monthly payment but 26 times in a year, resulting in an extra monthly payment per year that leads to a faster mortgage amortization and lower interest cost.

You should consider the bi-weekly mortgage calculator with additional principal payments as a model for financial approximation. All payment figures, balances, and interest figures are estimates based on the data you provided in the specifications that are, despite our best effort, not exhaustive.

For this reason, we created the calculator for instructional purposes only. Still, if you experience a relevant drawback or encounter any inaccuracy, we are always pleased to receive useful feedback and advice.