What is a mortgage accelerator?

There are a few different programs that are referred to as "Mortgage Accelerators". Some are actual bank loan programs and others are simply techniques used to reduce your mortgage balance.

You can also take the amount of your monthly mortgage payment and divide it by 12. For example $700 divided by 12 is $58.33. By simply paying $758.33 every month, rather than $700, you will make an extra payment every year.

One type of mortgage accelerator is to make payments every two weeks, rather than once per month. Over the course of one year you will make 13 payments rather than 12, which will reduce years off of your mortgage.

If you have the ability to make a larger mortgage payment, but you don't think you have the will power to pay more than the minimum each month, you may consider shortening your loan term. Believe it or not, reducing your 30 year fixed rate loan to a 15 year fixed loan may not increase your payment by as much as you expect. 15 year loans come with lower interest rates, which means lower payments. Also, most of your monthly payment goes toward interest. It doesn't take a large increase in payment amount to double the amount that you pay toward your balance each month. Ask your mortgage professional to price out a 15 year loan compared to a 30 year loan, and see the difference. You may be surprised!