Mortgage calculator extra principal payment and biweekly

If you have the available cash flow, you can make extra payments which are used to reduce the loan balance. When you decrease the amount owed, you lower the amount of interest due. Doing this is called prepaying principal.

Mortgage calculator extra principal payment and biweekly
The "Loan Summary" shows how much interest the biweekly loan saves the borrower.

Even making one extra payment will save you interest. This calculator supports both lump sum or one-time extra payments as well as a series of additional payments.

To see how much you'll save, you may apply the extra payment to either the monthly loan or the biweekly loan, or both. The idea here is, you may want to compare a debt paid biweekly without additional payments to a debt paid monthly, where you do plan to make extra payments.

Or you may want to see how much the biweekly loan will save over the conventional loan when you add extra payments to get an additional saving boost.

Note: In keeping with the theme of this calculator, the extra payment for the biweekly loan will be 1/2 the amount you enter. This is an intentional design feature, not a bug!

A biweekly loan will save you money.

A biweekly loan and making extra payments will save you even more money.

But is doing either the right, long term, financial strategy?

Forgone Opportunity Costs - They Could Cost You!

At the top of this post, when explaining how a biweekly payment loan works and how it saves interest charges, I showed you some simple arithmetic. In the example, if you, the borrower, elects to pay every other week, you'll pay $2,000 more per year than if you make 12 monthly payments.

You should ask yourself, what else could you be doing with the $2,000?

Could you be investing it?

If you make biweekly payments, you lose the opportunity to invest them. Not being able to save and invest is a forgone opportunity. It does not come back.

The question then is, if you invested the $2,000, how much would it earn over the term of the biweekly loan? Would you gain more than you expect to save interest charges?

Several calculators on this site will answer these questions for you. This Savings Calculator is a good place to start.

What you want to know is what will be the future value of $2,000 invested every year for the next 22 years or so (typically the term of the biweekly loan at today's interest rates). If the future value is more than that amount you save in interest, then perhaps you should not take out a biweekly mortgage?

Remember though, there are usually risks to investing, while the interest saved with a biweekly mortgage or loan is a mathematical certainty.

Charts

If you are like me, you'll get tired of staring at columns of numbers. That's where charts come into play. Take a look at the recently updated charts to get a quick summary of all the details you'll find in the amortization schedules.

This calculator includes six of them.

Mortgage calculator extra principal payment and biweekly
Chart depicting annual principal and interest amounts with a series of extra payments.

If you are a blogger, feel free to export () any of the charts you create and to post them on your site to help prove your point!

What do you think?

Created by Tibor Pal, PhD candidate

Reviewed by Dominik Czernia, PhD and Jack Bowater

Last updated: Oct 13, 2022

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.

How to make bi-weekly mortgage payments: an example of a 30 year mortgage bi-weekly payment

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.

Monthly payments

Bi-weekly payments

Difference

Payment

$1,798.65 monthly

$899,33 bi-weekly

$1,798.65 more per year

Term

30 years

24 years and 6 months

5 years and 6 months

Total interest

$347,514.57

$272,097.65

$75,416.92 less

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.

Should I make bi-weekly mortgage payments? - Applying the bi-weekly mortgage payment calculator

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.

What is difference between bi-weekly and accelerated 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.

FAQ

How much can I save by choosing a 20-year mortgage bi-weekly payments?

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.

How can I save with bi-weekly mortgage payments?

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.

How does an accelerated bi-weekly mortgage work?

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.

Bi-weekly mortgage payment calculator disclaimer

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.

Bi-weekly mortgage inputs

Payment summary

Monthly payments Bi-weekly payments Difference
Payment $2,097.64 monthly $1,048.82 bi-weekly $2,097.64 more per year
Term 30 years 23 years and 3 months 6 years and 9 months
Payoff date Sept. 27, 2052 Dec. 07, 2045 6 years and 9 months
Total interest $455,151.67 $333,044.56 -$122,107.11
Total payments $755,151.67 $633,044.56 -$122,107.11

10/1 ARM28/36 RuleAmortization… 58 more

Is it better to pay extra principal biweekly or monthly?

Since your interest is calculated on your remaining loan balance, making additional principal payments every month will significantly reduce your interest payments over the life of the loan. By paying more principal each month, you incrementally lower the principal balance and interest charged on it.

How much faster will I pay off my mortgage if I pay every 2 weeks?

Biweekly payments accelerate your mortgage payoff by paying 1/2 of your normal monthly payment every two weeks. By the end of each year, you will have paid the equivalent of 13 monthly payments instead of 12. This simple technique can shave years off your mortgage and save you thousands of dollars in interest.

What happens if I make 2 extra mortgage payments a year?

This is equivalent to 12 slightly-higher monthly payments of $1,252.85 — but this small difference is enough to pay off your full debt in just 22 years and cost you only $129,712.85 in interest. In other words: two extra mortgage payments per year will save you eight years and $56,798.72 in interest.

How fast can you pay off a 30 year mortgage with biweekly payments?

If you pay according to your lender's standard amortization schedule, your loan will take you 30 years to repay. However, by paying biweekly – and essentially making one extra monthly payment a year – you'll actually pay your loan off midway through year 25.