Now that I am with Countrywide Mortgage Company there are 4 options for paying for my mortgage automatically.

PayPlan/12 allows your payment to be automatically deducted from your checking or savings account on any date you select during the month. You can also add an additional fixed amount to be applied as a principal balance reduction. The date you select will determine if you will incur a fee for this service. For example, if your payment is due on the first of each month with a 15 day grace period, this service is free for a draft date selected between the first and eleventh of the month. However, for a draft date selected between the twelfth and the sixteenth of the month, a $4.00 transaction fee will be assessed.

PayPlan/24 allows you to draft half of your payment amount twice prior to or within your grace period. There will be a total of 24 semi-monthly drafts in a twelve month period. With PayPlan/24 you pay nothing to enroll and a nominal fee of $2.00 for each semi-monthly transaction.

PayPlan/26 will automatically draft half of your payment amount every two weeks. There will be a total of 26 bi-weekly drafts in a twelve month period. After one year of participating in this plan, you will have made an equivalent of 13 payments. The additional funds that you paid are directly applied to the principal balance of your loan. With PayPlan/26 you pay nothing to enroll, and a nominal fee of $2.00 for each bi-weekly transaction.

PayPlan/52 drafts one fourth of your payment amount each week. After one year of participating in this plan, you will have made an equivalent of 13 payments. The additional funds that you paid are directly applied to the principal balance of your loan. With PayPlan/52, you pay nothing to enroll, and a nominal fee of $1.00 for each weekly transaction.

The positive of Countrywide is that I can autodraft from my savings account, so I can earn 5.05%+ APY while waiting for a draft instead of having to have it sit in my checking account doing nothing.

So the question becomes, do I save any money by chosing one of the plans that drafts more than once a month and eating the fee, or am I better off just paying once a month for no fee? I understand with a multiple payment system I will make an extra payment a year, as well as reduce the interest accumulated, but is that any better than if I just put an extra payment/12 a month in and saved the $4 fee. My after tax benefit rate on my loan is still higher than the rate on my savings account so it may be beneficial.