Mortgage: Use escrow account or pay yourself?

[adventure]

We are refinancing a home mortgage, and have the option (unlike our last 2 mortgages) to handle the TI (property Taxes and Insurance) of PITI ourselves, instead of using an escrow (or impound) account.

Has anyone chosen not to use the escrow account to leverage the funds in between payments? If so, was it worth the funds and added hassle?

[Craigy]

If I could, I'd probably opt to just handle it myself.  I have two property tax payments, a homeowners payment, and a flood payment, each once a year.  Not really a hassle.

That said, escrow doesn't really bother me that much either, but it's something for me to check on periodically to make sure it's not getting messed up.

[White.Beard.Doc]

I prefer having an escrow account.  The mortgage servicer takes responsibility for paying the taxes and the insurance, just one less thing I have to handle.  But on the other hand, if I pay the taxes myself, I can decide to pay the January tax bill in December and take the deduction this tax year rather than next.  Overall, the ease of payment with the escrow is my preference, but only by a small amount.

[Zaphod]

No, its not worth it. I had mine barely over a year and decided I would actually irl, pay someone for the hassle so I rolled it into an escrow. Much better.