Switch to biweekly payments

Biweekly payments take advantage of the fact that there are 52 weeks in the year and 12 months. If you pay half your regular mortgage payment every other week, you'll have made 26 half-payments, or the equivalent of 13 full monthly payments, at year's end.

See how it works with Bankrate's biweekly mortgage calculator. The extra annual payment can chop off about six years from a 30-year mortgage.  So if you pay your mortgage online each month, like most people are now doing, this is very easy to do.