For people willing to make a half payment from each paycheck, this loan offers rapid building of equity. The biweekly mortgage is usually a 30-year fixed rate mortgage.

What's different is that payment for half the monthly amount is made every two weeks. In this way, you make the equivalent of 13 months worth of payments every year.

Also, because your payments are applied to the loan every 14 days, the principal amount decreases faster, saving even more in interest costs. As a result, your loan term shortens to 22 or 23 years, providing a substantial decrease in total interest costs.

Advantages

• Loan is paid off much more quickly
• Interest savings is significant
• Often automatically deducted from your checking account

Disadvantages

• Must be able to budget and make the half-mortgage payment every two weeks