The BiWeekly Disadvantage Plan?
One of the first articles I ever posted on the internet (which I initially wrote for my client newsletter) talks about biweekly payment programs offered by lenders. (The article is here, as a pdf -- the part about biweekly payment programs starts in the middle of page 3.) My conclusion is that paying 1/2 of your monthly mortgage payment every two weeks (for a total of 13 full mortgage payments per year instead of 12) is a great idea, but being forced to pay an enrollment fee to do so is a pretty bad idea. That's because you can make these payments manually or automatically (via billpay), at little or no cost.
Evidently these biweekly payment programs are still being offered, so somebody must be taking the bait. CitiMortgage just sent me a mailing offering to set up biweekly payments for me via The Biweekly Advantage Plan -- I even get a "free" iPod Shuffle! You'll notice I put "free" in quotes, because you actually have to pay $375.00 to get the iPod (which retails for around $80.00).
Does it strike anyone as smart to pay $375 in order to (a) get something you can buy for $80 and (b) have something done for you that you can do for free?
