The mortgage escrow companies wait until the last possible day. Actually the last possible hour in a lot of cases. It's for a reason.
I see absolutely no reason to ever give the government a dime more than you have to, or money a minute before you have to.
If we lived in a society that was true to the "small government" principles of our Founding Fathers, I'd probably be less militant about this but given how out-of-control taxation is, spending is and how the government constantly insists on sending the message that it's THEIR money (not YOUR money), I cannot see making it easy for them... ever... under any circumstances.
They set the tone for this... I'm merely reciprocating it.
FWIW if you have greater than an 80% LTV you cannot waive escrow (I've checked). I suspect most people are in this situation these days. The first milestone I will have (and anyone should have) with respect to their mortgage is hitting this 80% threshold, which means you can dump the escrow and PMI (huge savings for you). With a 5% down conventional mortgage assuming you're buying reasonably and not over your head, you should be able to hit this level in about 4-5 years (I ran a quick scenario through a mortgage calculator and if you never overpay you hit it in 8.66 years at month #104), but you'd be nuts to never overpay... In my humble opinion of course...
