Is Enrolling in the biweekly mortgage payment plan to speed up the mortgage loan payoff a good idea?

Its the same payment just split into 2 different times a month. Supposedly its going to save me a ton in interest and reduce the life of my loan. Is this a good idea? or is this a scam? Thanks for any input.Is Enrolling in the biweekly mortgage payment plan to speed up the mortgage loan payoff a good idea?
I basically just take a mortgage payment divide it by 12 and add that to the principal every month.Is Enrolling in the biweekly mortgage payment plan to speed up the mortgage loan payoff a good idea?
First off, understand that if you make a payment every every other week, it is actually 26 payments per year. This is actually equal to 13 monthly payments, not 12. That is the main basis for saving money. If you do nothing but pay 1/2 of your payment on the 1st and 1/2 on the 15th, then you save nothing. The answer to your question is yes, it is a good idea. Anytime you pay extra towards your payment, the amount of interest is reduced on every future payment plus the amount is compounded. I would definitely recomend any plan where you pay extra per month.
I ran this analysis several years ago when I decided to pay off my mortgage in half the time. Most of the companies offering you this program charge fees and you can really accomplish the same goal, reducing the interest you pay on the mortgage, all by yourself. Just issue an extra check marked ';principal reduction only'; which will pay down what you actually owe without paying one dime of interest, it goes straight to the principal balance. I pay double principal every month which not only helps me pay off the outstanding debt faster, it saves me a ton of interest and has changed the dynamic of the regular payment I make every month to where I am now paying more principal than interest. The only hitch is that you must have a mortgage that does not have pre-payment penalties.
if your mtg company allows you to just pay extra principal each month - that's better - some of those biweekly plans don;t actually make the additional payment until the end of the year, so you aren't gaining as much extra equity versus making additional payments with your Mtg - In 2 yrs, I've probably knocked off 2 payments from my 30 yr mtg already just paying an extra $30-50 a month-better than nothing, especially since I'm probably upside down in the mtg thanks to the bad RE Mkt