Biweekly Payment Calculator
What paying half your mortgage payment every two weeks saves, and how paying a twelfth extra each month compares.
Result
Biweekly payment: $948.10
Assumes each half-payment is applied when paid. Many servicers hold it until the month’s total arrives.
- Months saved
- 70
- Interest saved
- $88,123.21
- Years to clear, paying biweekly
- 24.2
- Monthly payment, for comparison
- $1,896.20
- Or: pay this much extra each month
- $158.02
- Months saved that way
- 70
- Interest saved that way
- $87,259.09
https://calcgallery.com/finance/biweekly-payment-calculator/
Results are arithmetic estimates based on the values you enter. Rates, fees and terms are set by your lender or provider, and your actual agreement controls what you pay or receive. Confirm important figures with them or with a qualified adviser. Read the full disclaimer
How to use the Biweekly Payment Calculator
- Enter the loan amount, the interest rate and the term.
- Optionally add an extra amount to each biweekly payment.
- Read the biweekly payment, the months and interest saved, and the same comparison for paying a little extra each month instead.
How it is compared
monthly payment = P × i ÷ (1 − (1 + i)⁻ⁿ), i = rate ÷ 12biweekly payment = monthly payment ÷ 2, paid 26 times a year, interest at rate ÷ 26 each periodextra-monthly = monthly payment + monthly payment ÷ 12, every monthThe page runs each schedule until the loan is cleared. It then compares the time taken and interest paid with the loan as written, over its full term with its normal interest.
The thirteenth payment
A year has 52 weeks, so a payment every two weeks falls 26 times, not 24. That is the source of the saving, and it is why the diagram’s dashed biweekly line reaches zero years before the monthly one. Paying the same extra amount any other way, once a year or a twelfth each month, gives almost the same result.
Before you sign up
A biweekly plan offered by a third party may charge an enrolment or per-payment fee, which can outweigh the interest saved over the first years. Your servicer can tell you whether it accepts extra principal payments without a fee, and how it applies them.
With your numbers
- Monthly payment $1,896.20; half of it every two weeks is 26 half-payments, 13 monthly payments, a year
- Biweekly: clears in 24.2 years, saving $88,123.21
- Paying $158.02 extra each month instead saves 70 months and $87,259.09
Quick reference
Assumes each half-payment is applied when paid. Many servicers hold it until the month’s total arrives.
| Example | Biweekly payment |
|---|---|
| USD 300,000 at 6.5% over 30 years | $948.10 |
| USD 300,000 at 3% over 30 years | $632.41 |
| USD 300,000 at 6.5% over 15 years | $1,306.66 |
| USD 450,000 at 7% over 30 years | $1,496.93 |
| USD 200,000 at 5.5% over 30 years, USD 50 extra | $617.79 |
| EUR 250,000 at 4% over 25 years | €659.80 |
Common questions about the Biweekly Payment Calculator
- Why does paying biweekly save money?
- Because it pays more each year. Half a monthly payment every two weeks is 26 half-payments, the same as 13 monthly payments, one more than the 12 on the normal schedule. That extra month a year goes entirely to principal. The saving does not come from paying more often: paying one twelfth extra each month saves the same number of months, as the page shows.
- Does my lender apply biweekly payments when I make them?
- Often not. Many servicers hold a half-payment until the second half arrives and apply them together as one monthly payment, which removes most of the benefit until the thirteenth payment builds up. Some third-party biweekly programmes charge a fee to set it up. Ask your servicer how a payment made every two weeks would be applied before relying on the savings shown here.
- Is it better to pay biweekly or add extra each month?
- The results are almost identical. On 300,000 at 6.5% over 30 years, both routes save 70 months, and the interest saved differs by under 1,000. Adding 158.02 to each monthly payment needs no special arrangement with your servicer, can be stopped at any time, and is applied the day it is paid.
- How accurate are the figures?
- The monthly schedule is worked to the cent. The biweekly and extra-payment schedules are worked without rounding the balance, because their period lengths differ and rounding each would blur the comparison. The months saved are rounded down, so the page never overstates them.