By Tracy Luciani Price
If we save one homeowner from this dangerous practice, we have done our job.   No one should paying their mortgage weekly.  We can`t believe the number of new clients who tell us the bank told them to increase the frequency of the mortgage, so they will pay their mortgage down quicker. That’s a load of hoeey!  Now read this again.  WEEKY PAYMENTS DO NOT PAY YOUR MORTAGE DOWN FASTER!  Unfortunately, it’s more smoke and mirrors by the banks to let you think you are doing something magical to your mortgage.   But you are not. The bank is simply interested in controlling your paycheque.  If you don`t believe us,  go on the internet and look at both a monthly and weekly amortization schedule.  Both will pay exactly the same principal and interest by the rest of the term and there is absolutely no difference.
So  it’s danger , danger when it comes to paying weekly.  Why...because of a number of reasons.  But biggest and most important reason,  is any bank can go power of sale on your home after three missed payments.  It`s in the fine print.  Three missed payments.  That includes, weekly, bi-weekly or monthly.  You never, ever want to give control over to the bank.  And if anyone has ever missed a payment knows, it is nightmarish to try to catch up.  Besides all the extra fees for NSFs, you have now been red flagged by the bank.   By paying four times a month you have increased your chances of having a problem by 200 times over a 5 year term.   
Now the bank is making higher banking fees when there are four transactions just for your mortgage payments in a month.  We had a client who was always a day late on their mortgage.  They never thought it was a big deal because the money was there, the following day.  But when we asked for a mortgage history when doing a new mortgage for them, we discovered the client had been late 27 times and paid $2,000 in NSF fees.  While this is an extreme example of what can happen, it shows that it can.
And as of the late, mortgage payments are now appearing on credit bureaus.  This never happened before this year. Now creditors  can see plain and simple what your payment history has been over the past six years.  And if you have had some misses in the past, it will be more difficult for you to get a mortgage, even if you already have one now.
We have given you a few of reasons for not paying weekly, but here is another question to think about.   It`s hard enough to remember to make your monthly VISA payment on time, so why on earth would you want to be forced into a payment weekly when it does nothing to pay  your mortgage down quicker.
New client  tell us they like the convenience of paying weekly because that`s how they get paid by their employer.   We say budget weekly but pay monthly.  It`s is not worth the risk period.  If you want real strategies for paying your mortgage off quicker, that your bank won`t tell you, give us a call or better yet stop in, to our `Don Cherry House’.