MORTGAGE
Paying half your monthly mortgage payment every two weeks adds up to one extra full payment each year. This calculator shows how much sooner you could be mortgage-free with biweekly payments, and how much interest you would save compared with paying once a month.
Biweekly mortgage calculator
This calculator assumes each biweekly payment is applied straight away and the extra amount goes towards principal. It does not include taxes, insurance or fees, and results are estimates for educational purposes only, not financial advice.
Say you borrow $320,000 at 6.5% over 30 years.
The standard monthly payment is $2,022.62, and paid monthly for the full term the loan costs $408,142.36 in interest. Split the payment in two and you pay $1,011.31 every two weeks instead.
Because 26 half payments add up to 13 full payments a year, the biweekly plan clears the loan in 24 years and 2 months. The total interest falls to $314,145.80, which saves $93,996.57, and you are mortgage-free 5 years and 10 months sooner. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau offers free guides for home buyers and borrowers.
There are 26 two-week periods in a year, because 52 weeks divided by two is 26. If you pay half your monthly payment in each of those periods, you make 26 half-payments over the year, which add up to 13 full monthly payments instead of the usual 12.
That one extra payment a year goes straight to principal, the amount you still owe. Once the principal is lower, interest is charged on a smaller balance, so more of each following payment clears the debt instead of paying interest.
That is why the loan ends sooner and costs less interest overall. The saving comes from the extra payment itself, not from the two-week schedule on its own, so any method that adds the same extra principal each year produces a similar result.
It is half your normal monthly payment, paid every two weeks. Because there are 26 two-week periods in a year, you pay the equivalent of 13 monthly payments a year instead of 12.
On a typical 30-year loan it can cut about five to seven years off the term and save tens of thousands of dollars in interest. The exact amount depends on your interest rate and balance, with bigger savings on larger loans and higher rates.
The effect is the same, because both add one full extra payment a year. Choose whichever fits your pay schedule best: biweekly if you are paid every two weeks, or a single extra payment if that is easier to manage.
No. Some lenders offer biweekly payments free, some charge for the service, and some hold partial payments until a full payment has built up. The do-it-yourself route of adding extra principal to your monthly payment works with any lender.