Simple Interest Bi-weekly Mortgage

[swanson719]

So we currently have a 30 yr fixed at 5.0% with our mortgage payment a little under $1,000. Like everyone else, I'm always trying to find ways to lower our bills. Currently, we save/invest right around 50% of our net income. We have no debt aside from our mortgage.

We recently got a new guy at work who was telling me about simple interest mortgages that you pay bi-weekly, and that it's supposed to significantly lower your interest. I've never heard of this before, and from the little research I've done into it, it doesn't do anything more for you than if you pay extra on your principle anyway. When we finish out our EF and Roth contributions for 09, we're going to move all the money that would normally go to that into extra principle payments, which should pay off the house in about 5 years. Am I missing something with the simple interest bi-weekly that makes it worth while to pay refinance fees and switch to that as opposed to paying extra principle?

[isthisused]

I looked into it and came to that same conclusion. My understanding is that the programs that arrange the biweekly payments usually charge fees and the effect is the same to add money to principle.