Do you know that every year you're giving away the hard-earned 
equity in your home by paying more than you have to in interest? 
Most home owners don't realize they can cut up to seven years 
off of the length of their mortgage, saving thousands of dollars 
in the process. Think it doesn't add up to a lot?
 
Think again. Let's lowball it and say you have an $80,000
mortgage and are paying an interest rate of 7 percent. How much 
will a bi-weekly payment method save you, versus paying the 
conventional mortgage off over 30 years?
 
Believe it or not, you would be saving over $25,000. The more 
your loan amount or the higher your interest, the more money 
this you can save. When you pay your mortgage bi-weekly, there 
are a number of factors that come into play.
 
You're reducing the term of your loan by up to eight years,
you're paying less interest over the life of your loan and 
you're building up equity in your home sooner because more 
of your money is going towards principal than interest. The 
savings don't end there.
 
Due to the fact that your mortgage will be paid off years in
advance, you will be able to discontinue your private mortgage 
insurance earlier than you would if you were paying over a full 
30 years, thereby saving you even more money.
 
The bi-weekly mortgage method is also a wonderful option for
people who want to pay off their homes in a shorter period of
time than the conventional thirty year mortgages allow, but 
who don't qualify for a standard 15 year mortgage. It offers
homeowners more convenience and flexibility than a fifteen year 
mortgage.
 
With a fifteen-year mortgage, if you want to change to a 
thirty-year mortgage, you would have to refinance. With the 
bi-weekly payment plan, if your circumstances temporarily 
change you and need to pay on a monthly basis for a period 
of time, there is no refinancing necessary.
 
So how much is someone going to charge you to save you thousands 
of dollars and build up quick equity in your home? There are 
various services available to homeowners that will take control 
of this process for you.  but you can expect to pay anywhere 
from $99 to $395 set-up fee.
 
Some companies even claim to offer setting you up on a bi-
weekly plan for free.  Take warning to this...these companies
always charge a transaction fee twice a month which average
$3.50 each.  This equals $84 per year or a whopping $1,848
over the term of the mortgage.
 
Not so free afterall...
 
Using these companies wastes a lot of the money you would be 
saving by implementing such a plan in the first place. There is 
really no reason to enlist the help of a company to do this for 
you, when with the proper tools and information, you can do it 
yourself.
 
Unless you're independently wealthy and don't care where your 
money goes, then you will definitely want to look into paying 
off your mortgage on the bi-weekly plan, and learning how to 
do it on your own.