One of the first choices which you need to make, when you are applying for a mortgage is to choose one of the mortgage payment options. The most popular are weekly vs monthly mortgage payments. And, as you can guess, today we are going to talk about them, payment options in general, we will slightly mention pros and cons of some types and give you other useful information.
2 Different Types of Payments
Basically, types of payments can be distinguished into:
- Regular
- Accelerated
What is the point you may ask? As you can guess, we are still talking about frequency, like in the weekly vs monthly mortgage payments case, but in a little bit different direction. The difference between those two types is simple, if you choose the accelerated type, you may end up paying for an extra month (like there are 13 of them and not 12) because these options are calculated differently. This payment for an extra month is split between your regular payments, so you pay a bit more on a monthly basis, BUT, you save a lot on the interest and can close your mortgage sooner.
Mortgage Payment Options
Before answering the question, which one is better, weekly vs monthly mortgage payments let’s look at the other options:
Monthly
One of the most popular options. It is clear from the title that for this type you need to pay your mortgage each month (probably at the same date each month, each 25th day for example), so you make 12 payments per year.
Let’s do some math. Imagine, that you have bought a house for 300.000$ and your mortgage is fixed and approved for 25 years with a mortgage rate of 2,94% and you already made a down payment of 10%. In this case, your monthly payment will be 1.295$. In the future, you can use different online mortgage calculators for that.
Weekly
With this option, you make 52 payments per year because there are 52 weeks in the year! To calculate this type you need to take your monthly payment х 12 times and divide it on 52.
Accelerated Weekly
Here your monthly mortgage payment is divided by 4 and you still pay every week and make 52 payments per year. However, your payments will be a little bit higher, we will look at the approximate numbers in the next bi-weekly option example.
Bi-weekly
With this option, you make 26 payments per year and your monthly payment is х 12 times and divided into 26 pay periods. If we continue with our example the amount of your payment will be following — 597,69$
Accelerated Bi-weekly
Last but not least (and actually the most preferable type) is the accelerated bi-weekly type. Here your monthly mortgage payment is divided by two and you still make 26 payments per year, however, they are higher — 647.50$. But this small difference of 49,81$ can help you save thousands on interest and at least 1 year of a mortgage.
Conclusion
There are really a lot of options you can choose from and it is only your decision. From our point of view if you choose weekly vs monthly mortgage payments there is almost no difference, so it is better to choose an accelerated type to close your mortgage faster (only if your financial case allows that).