By Jennifer Bradley Franklin, Bankrate.com

In broad terms, mortgage acceleration or an accelerator loan is any program that “helps homeowners pay off their mortgage balances much earlier, resulting in significant interest savings over the life of the loan and reducing the payment duration by several years,” says Robert Bullara, owner of Fine Realty International in Austin, Texas.

“With mortgage accelerator programs, you pay a little extra each month toward your mortgage’s principal,” says Bullara.

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Keep in mind: A mortgage acceleration program isn’t the same as an acceleration clause in your loan contract — more on that below.

What is an acceleration clause?

An acceleration clause, also referred to as a “demand feature,” is a provision in your mortgage contract that allows the lender to require a full repayment of the loan. You can find out if your mortgage includes this stipulation on page four of your closing disclosure. If your loan does, the conditions under which the clause can be imposed are typically spelled out in your mortgage note documents.

Types of mortgage accelerator programs

There are formal mortgage accelerator loan programs — that means those you apply and pay for — as well as less formalized strategies you can use to get similar payoff results over the life of your mortgage. Here’s an overview of the two main types of programs:

HELOC accelerator: A HELOC accelerator combines a bank account with a mortgage and HELOC, or home equity line of credit. With this kind of program, you’ll deposit your paychecks into a HELOC and use that line of credit to pay your mortgage. You’ll then draw funds from the line to pay other expenses like car payments and utilities. After that, the remaining cash goes toward the mortgage.
Biweekly mortgage payment accelerator: In a biweekly mortgage payment accelerator setup, you’ll make an accelerated mortgage payment every two weeks, typically by auto-withdrawal. The accelerator loan provider either pays your loan on your behalf every two weeks or once per month.

Pros and cons of mortgage accelerator loans

While the benefits might sound tempting, mortgage accelerator programs also have some drawbacks. If you’re considering one of these loans, weigh the pros and cons first:

Pros of mortgage acceleration

Lets you pay off your mortgage quicker
Reduces how much you pay in interest
Helps you become debt-free faster than you would with a traditional mortgage

Cons of mortgage acceleration

Interest rates can be higher than traditional mortgages
May have steep upfront, annual or transaction fees
Requires steady income and good money management

Alternatives to mortgage accelerator programs

When you get right down to it, the best way to accelerate your mortgage payoff is to simply pay more as fast as you can. Some tried-and-true strategies include:

Add a bit of extra money toward your principal each month.
Contribute an extra mortgage payment each year.
Schedule a half-mortgage payment every two weeks, also known as biweekly payments. Since there are 26 two-week periods in a year, that’s effectively one extra mortgage payment annually.

No matter what alternatives you use, always notify your mortgage lender or servicer of your plans to ensure those extra payments go toward your principal rather than the interest on the loan.

When in doubt, it’s smart to sit down with a trusted financial adviser to determine if an early mortgage payoff aligns with your goals.

What borrowers should know about mortgage accelerator loans today

Mortgage accelerator loans aren’t for everyone. For a less-than-disciplined borrower, the draw of having a home equity line of credit could actually enable them to live above their means, adding years and hefty interest debt over time.

“Accelerator mortgages tend to be of particular value for higher rate or additional rate taxpayers, as well as for people with large savings who don’t rely on accrued interest to finance their day-to-day lives,” says Bullara. “The major advantage for high-end taxpayers is that they do not have to pay tax on their savings interest. This type of loan is better for a high-net worth borrower that doesn’t live on a tight budget each month.”

Plus, with higher interest rates and fees than other mortgage types, mortgage accelerator loans aren’t always a smart financial choice.

“If it looks like you’ll pay more than you’ll save, it may be worth considering a more basic home loan with a lower rate and no fees,” says Bullara.

©2025 Bankrate.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

It’ll be words vs. words Friday and Saturday during the third annual Midwest Poetry Mash-Up, a regional poetry slam tournament for the Twin Cities and greater Midwest. There will be two preliminary bouts per team, beginning at 8 p.m. Friday, with a prize of $300 for the winner. Contestants are: Hot and Sour, Miso Soup, Boston Poetry Slam, Slam Free or Die, Landline 2.0, 4 the People, Queer Shenanigans, Macalester Poetry Slam, BuckSlam and Ghosts of Moon City. The finals are at 7 p.m. Saturday at Open Book, 1011 Washington Ave. S., Mpls. For ticket information go to midwestpoetrymashup.com.

(Courtesy of the American Booksellers Association)

Also on Saturday a record-setting 37 area bookstores will participate in the 2025 Twin Cities Independent Bookstore Day, which celebrates the region’s community-based bookstores. Rain Taxi is again offering the popular free Bookstore Passport, illustrated by Kevin Cannon, that can be picked up at participating bookstores between Wednesday and April 27. During those days participants can travel to as many bookstores as they can, getting their Passport stamped at each store. Each stamped page becomes a discount coupon for a future visit, and readers who reach certain goals can enter to win prizes, including bookstore gift cards, free books and merchandise and more. Readers who obtain 20-29 stamps can enter to win a prize pack of books and those with 30 or more stamps can enter to win one of three grand prizes. For more details and a list of participating bookstores, go to raintaxi.com/twin-cities-independent-bookstore-passport-2025.

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Literary calendar for week of April 13

RON DE BEAULIEU: Signs copies of his book that brings local history to life, “Minnesota’s Most Notorious Mobster: The Making and Breaking of Kid Cann.” Noon-2 p.m. Saturday, Once Upon a Crime, 604 W. 26th St., Mpls.

MAI CORTLAND: Korean author in the vanguard of “romantasy” fiction introduces her latest, “Four Ruined Realms,” the next installment in her Broken Blades series in the MELSA Club Book reading series. Free. 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Merriam Park library, 1831 Marshall Ave., St. Paul.

TARIK DOBBS: Poetry month event in Minnesota Humanities Center MN Writers Off the Page series features Dobbs reading from “Nazi Boy,” which explores the themes of identity, surveillance and the complexities of Arab-American life. Free. 6 p.m. Wednesday, Minnesota Humanities Center, 987 E. Ivy Ave., St. Paul.

LIESE GREENSFELDER: Discusses her memoir “Accidental Shepherd: How a California Girl Rescued an Ancient Mountain Farm in Norway,” with characters that include 115 sheep, two cows, a draft horse and a sweet dog. 7 p.m. Thursday, Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.

ANN NAPOLITANO: Bestselling author of contemporary fiction discusses “Hello Beautiful,” in a virtual/streaming event in MELSA’s Club Book reading series. Free. 7 p.m. Wednesday. No reservations required. Go to facebook.com/ClubBook.

NITA PROSE: Discusses her novel “The Maid’s Secret” in Valley Bookseller’s Literature Lovers’ Night Out. Free. 6 p.m. Tuesday, Minneapolis Central Library, 300 Nicollet Mall, Mpls.

KEVIN WILSON: Tennessee resident discusses his novel “Nothing to See Here,” the NEA Big Read in the St. Croix Valley title. Free. 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Trinity Church, 115 4th St. N., Stillwater. Information at BigReadSCV.eventbrite.com.

What else is going on

We mourn the death this month of Cheng-Khee Chee, world-renowned watercolor artist, who lived in Duluth for 60 years. An associate professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota Duluth, he was known for his beautiful illustrations for “Old Turtle,”  written by Doug Wood. “He always called me Doug. I always called him Mr. Chee. That seemed about right,” Wood wrote in a Facebook tribute. “He was always so very kind, thoughtful, and generous.”

Kathryn Kysar (Courtesy of the author)

Congrats to Kathryn Kysar, who won the Association of Writers & Writing Programs George Garrett award for outstanding community service in literature. The award recognizes individuals who have made notable donations of care, time, labor and money to support writers and their literary accomplishments. Kysar, who lives in St. Paul, is the author of two books of poetry and has written book reviews for national publications. Founder of the creative writing program at Anoka-Ramsey Community College, she teaches at the Loft Literary Center. Kysar says she is the first community college teacher to win this honor.

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If you’re sitting in Copenhagen or Nuuk and looking for bespoke lessons from the trade war that President Donald Trump just declared on the world, here are two.

First, what this American president signals, he also carries out. Second, it does not matter whether the object of his fixation is obviously self-defeating or nonsensical; he’ll press on regardless, just because. Put both insights together, and you may conclude that when Trump says he’ll “get” Greenland from Denmark — “100%,” with or without force — he will try.

Among the latest indicators is the firing of Colonel Susannah Meyers. She commanded the Pituffik Space Base (formerly named Thule Air Base), an American outpost in Greenland that monitors the Arctic skies for incoming enemy missiles. At first blush, Meyers might seem to be just one more victim in the ongoing purge of national-security and military officials deemed disloyal to Trump or suspiciously woke. In this case, though, the Pentagon specified that actions “to subvert President Trump’s agenda will not be tolerated.”

What could have been Meyers’ transgression? It occurred just after a visit to the base by JD Vance and his entourage, during which the vice president wantonly snubbed the host country. “Our message to Denmark is very simple,” Vance said. “You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland.”

Danes and Greenlanders were understandably offended. So Meyers sent an internal email to all her staff, including the American service members and the Danish and Greenlandic contractors working with them, reassuring them that Vance’s “concerns” are “not reflective of Pituffik Space Base.” And now she’s out, on grounds of subversion.

Washington, meanwhile, is abuzz with other planning. The Office of Management and Budget has commissioned a cost-benefit analysis that balances such items as the expense of subsidizing Greenland’s 56,000 residents (so that Trump can outbid the block grants that Copenhagen sends to its semi-autonomous Arctic territory) against the value of extracting minerals from the frozen land. Will the Pentagon draw up invasion scenarios next?

To grasp the insanity of these developments, you need to appreciate the long and intimate relationship of the U.S. and Denmark in Greenland. Its military roots date to World War II, when the Third Reich overran Denmark, and the Danes discreetly invited the U.S. to defend Greenland. The Americans did just that, building bases from which they took out Nazi planes and submarines in the North Atlantic.

The cooperation continued and deepened during the Cold War, formalized in an agreement in 1951. It regulated the Thule Air Base, but also about a dozen others, with colorful names like Bluie West One and Bluie East Two. (“Bluie” was code for Greenland, and the directions and numbers spared American aviators from mispronouncing Inuit place names.) The U.S. and Denmark also have five other defense agreements, weaving together their logistics, spying and fighting prowess. A sixth was signed under Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden; impressively, under the circumstances, the Danish parliament just ratified it last week.

The Danes, in short, usually like working with the Yanks, and have always been open to doing more together. Even so, both Copenhagen and Washington, like other Western capitals, concluded after the Cold War that a peace dividend was due. The Arctic seemed less threatening, so the Americans closed all their bases in Greenland except Thule/Pituffik.

More recently, that risk environment has changed again, and as dramatically as the climate, which causes the Arctic ice to melt and frees shipping lanes for commercial and military craft. Russia and China are now vying with the West for access and dominance in the region, in what resembles a new Great Game. Moscow and Beijing are even teaming up for joint patrols in the Arctic.

In response, NATO countries are boosting their defenses. Norway is fortifying its Svalbard archipelago, and Canada is modernizing and growing its forces in the region. Denmark, the U.S. and their partners are right in planning to do more.

Together, that is. That’s as it has been since World War II and as it should be. Canada’s new defense investments, for example, go into the North American Aerospace Defense Command, a bi-national operation between the U.S. and Canada in which each ally contributes its expertise.

That’s the spirit in which Denmark’s foreign minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, now appeals to the U.S. “We do not appreciate the tone” in which Vance and Trump talk to Copenhagen, he says, because “this is not how you speak to close allies.” At the same time, he agrees that “the U.S. needs a greater military presence in Greenland” and offers that “we, Denmark and Greenland, are very much open to discussing this with you.”

Geopolitically and strategically, Greenland is as important as everyone including Trump thinks. For that reason, the West needs to do more to secure the territory and its waters and skies.

The good news is that the U.S. already has the time-tested friendships to do that. The bad news is that the American president doesn’t understand this.

Instead, he alienates America’s allies by bullying and threatening them, increasingly resembling the imperialist adversary in the Kremlin that NATO should jointly stare down. Trump has got Greenland, like his entire foreign policy, exactly upside down.

Andreas Kluth is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering US diplomacy, national security and geopolitics. Previously, he was editor-in-chief of Handelsblatt Global and a writer for the Economist.

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