No. When you make a payment on a regularly amortizing loan, all monies are first applied to accrued interest, and what remains is paid to the principal. Think of it this way, the interest that is due is what you are being charged for the money you borrowed from the bank. This interest accrues against the current principal balance, so the lower the balance, the less interest that will accrue. While this is a strong argument for paying additional funds to your principal balance, you must first pay the interest that is due to the bank because you borrowed their money.
Once that monthly interest is paid, anything additional can be applied to the principal, and this will lessen the amount of future interest you will pay on the loan. At the same time, any payments that you make will always pay the current interest due first. Here's an example:
Let's say you start out with a $100,000 loan at 6% interest, and the loan term is 30 years. Your monthly payment will be $599.55 for 30 years. Initially, because you owe the full $100,000, your monthly interest will be around $500 a month. The remaining $99.55 will go towards paying down principal. Lets say that you have paid on the loan now for some years, and your current balance of the $100,000 initially borrowed is only $60,000. Your payment will remain fixed at $599.55. Since you only owe $60,000, the amount of the payment that is going towards accrued interest will be around $300. This means that nearly $300 per month is now going towards principal. Eventually, as you pay down the loan, it will amortize itself out. You can accelerate this process by paying more than your current monthly due, however your money will always go to interest first, followed by principal.
Answer Submitted on Thu, Nov 20 2008
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