Mortgage burning parties are considered a relic of our parents and grand-parents

generations. With growing uncertainty about our over-leveraged lives, the more

conservative and pragmatic thinkers among homeowners and investors see real charm in

the option to own our personal residences and other real estate free and clear.

There is no doubt the growing interest in mortgage payment acceleration plans is

valid. We looked at systems that encouraged pay offs, payments every two weeks and

hybid account management. We concluded that mortgage acceleration plans with merged

accounts was the preferred strategy by a significant margin.

Dr. David Goldreich of the prestigious London Business School proved that 80% of

UK mortgage loans with balances of (US equivalent of) $80,000 or more would be better off

using a mortgage acceleration payment strategy.

The "Mortgage Professor," Dr. Jack Guttentag, a member of the faculty of the

Wharton School since 1969, a former economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York,

believes there is real merit to these strategies.

Dr. Dolf de Roos, engineer, real estate educator, investor and New York Times best

selling author also agrees. De Roos is author of a forth coming book on mortgage

acceleration.

Hybrid accounts have been used outside of the United States for more than 20 years.

They are widely used in Australia, New Zealand and Britain.

In 1997 Virgin Financial (Richard Branson of Virgin Records, Virgin Atlantic etc.

fame) got together with The Royal Bank of Scotland to promote a mortgage interest offset

account called Virgin One or a Current Account Mortgage (CAM). This allows customers to

consolidate mortgage balances, traditional current accounts (checking,) personal loans

(home equity lines,) and even their saving accounts into one account. This requires

refinancing and sophisticated banking system software to manage the account balances to

the benefit of the homeowner mortgage.

These systems carry names like current account mortgages, hybrid, or mortgage

payment acceleration. They all approach the opportunity in various different ways and for

the primary benefit of the lender.