You have to analyze, what exactly your period payment consists of. The two biggest parts are the principal and the interest. In the early years they will very likely be accompanied by PMI. Under other circumstances unchanged, reducing any of these three components will result is a lower monthly payment.

First of all, PMI has to be terminated as soon as the outstanding balance hits the 80% of the purchase (or recently appreciated) price of your property. If you are ready to wait that long, that is. Going down from, say, 90% to 80% can take over 10-years! Terminating the insurance is not an easy business either, but when you do manage to get rid of it, you will immediately feel the difference. Read about the troubles and tribulations involved in my special article.

The amount paid towards the interest is a percentage of the outstanding balance (the principal). The lower the balance, the lower the interest payments. If your mortgage carries no principal prepayment penalties (any more), the most effective way to reduce the balance faster is extra payments. Yes, they may cause you some temporal inconvenience, but they do pay off. Simply calculate how much you can afford to invest into an extra payment (one or several) without depriving yourself of too many joys of life, and see how much it will reduce your monthly financial burden.

Cutting the principal part of the monthly payments down is not really recommended as it will slow down the process of the mortgage debt repayment. If you are desperate, you can try to refinance into an interest-only mortgage (your monthly payment will include no principal part at all for a certain period of time) or into a longer-term mortgage. Say, you have 10 years left on your current mortgage and you refinance for the same outstanding amount into a 30-year mortgage. The same sum gets stretched over a longer period of time and thus each monthly payment is lower. However, all other conditions of the new mortgage have to be favorable. This way also requires some cash, for refinancing is not cheap.

It is rather risky, I’d say, because it is secured by your home equity. Should you default on your payments, you can lose your home. But the purpose of HELOC is not to deprive you of your property; it is to provide you with some funds when needed. If you make sure that you understand how this mortgage works and do not give in to over-glitter-smiled conditions being pushed on you, you should be OK. Just do not tap into the equity too much.

Other risks to bear in mind, especially if a HEL/HELOC is your second mortgage, are: disqualification from a third loan; serious financial complications if you happen to have to move before the mortgages are paid off.

For more details read Second Mortgage.

And remember - a lot of people use HEL/HELOCs and are happy with the benefits.

It a sort of is. The main distinction between the two is the number of period payments made within each mortgage year. You may have a conventional mortgage with a period payment due twice a month, which is very close to, but not exactly every other week. With a conventional mortgage you make 12 (months)* 2 (payments a month) = 24 payments a year. If you pay every other week instead, you will make 52 (weeks in a year)/2 = 26 payments, which means that without too much effort you can pay your mortgage off sooner. In fact, a biweekly mortgage based on a 7% 30 year conventional Fixed Rate Mortgage plan pays off in 23 years 11 months.

However, a biweekly mortgage is not always the best option. Alternatively, you can achieve the same result with a conventional mortgage and some extra payments, if your mortgage carries no prepayment penalties. The advantage of this system is that you are free to make the extra payments whenever you find it appropriate. With a biweekly plan you are obliged to pay every other week. It is pretty much a matter of discipline, which you may or may not lack in the mortgage payment business.

For more details read Biweekly Mortgages.