A home loan known as a mortgage accelerator common in Australia and the U.K. has made it’s way to the U.S. recently. This loan uses a borrower’s paycheck in combination with home-equity borrowing to help lessen the amount of time a mortgage is paid. This can potentially help borrowers save tens of thousands of dollars in interest.

In a traditional 30-year mortgage the principal payment doesn’t equal the interest payments until just after 20 years of paying on the loan. Because many of us only stay in our homes an average of 5 to 7 years we spend most of that time strictly paying the interest on our mortgages. The introduction of the mortgage accelerator helps make a borrower’s money work for him or her instead of the bank or mortgage holder.

The way it works is that a borrower deposits their paychecks into accounts that use all the unspent money against balances on mortgage loans each month. At the beginning of a month you pay an amount toward your mortgage that includes as little interest as possible. Actually an advance line of credit, or HELOC, pays this amount. You’ll also use a credit card for daily expenses and then pay off that balance monthly with the HELOC. Then you deposit your paychecks into the HELOC, paying down the debt in this account. While it may take some financial responsibility to use this method, as many as 25% of Australians use it for paying down their mortgages.

In the United States, the two firms now offering these mortgages are Macquarie Mortgages USA, which calls the program the Macquarie Asset Manager, and CMG Financial Services, whose offering is called the Home Ownership Accelerator.