Mortgage elimination programs are all the rage these days. In the event that you don't know what they are, it's a really basic concept. You apply more money to the principal balance on your loan or you make payments at times other than once per month, and ultimately you lower you balance and pay your mortgage off sooner than the original term. It sounds great, but be careful what you read, because there are a lot of these mortgage elimination programs that either don't make sense or just plain scams.

I clicked on a website gloating that it had a program that would eliminate your mortgage in under a year. Wow! A 30-year home loan eliminated in one year. Sounds great; you're in, right? Not so fast. When I subscribed to a mailer to get more information, I received a very cryptic message that said the program was currently put on hold because the US patriot act makes it impossible to proceed with the necessary offshore banking transactions, which were necessary to make the process a success. Now, I'm not sure what all this means, but I do know I don't want someone sending my mortgage payments to some offshore bank account. This sounds like something straight from a John Grisham novel.

I've already written about the inverse mortgage, which holds that paying one's mortgage every three weeks instead of every four will help eliminate your mortgage in five years or less. Although the jury is still out on this program, I've done the math, and it simply doesn't add up.

Finally, I'm still investigating a program called, Mortgage Cycling. Although I don't know all the detail on this one, I do know that it involves taking a home equity loan and adding this money to your principal mortgage. Again, I'm not getting it. Why take more money out against your real estate, so you can pay it back on the same house. Isn't this sort of borrowing from Peter to pay Paul?

At any rate, I'll keep investigating. Meanwhile, beware of any mortgage elimination program. If you want a safe way to eliminate your mortgage more quickly, please refer to the wealth-building program, Winning the Mortgage Game.

Mark Barnes is an investment real estate and real estate finance expert. Get his free mortgage finance course at http://www.winningthemortgagegame.com and learn more about his wealth-building system. Mark is also the author of the new novel, The League, a shocking, sports-related conspiracy. Learn more about his suspense thriller at http://www.sportsnovels.com