Most Canadians sign the renewal their lender mails them. Most of them leave money on the table. Here is how renewal works, when to start, and how switching lenders is simpler than it sounds.
When your mortgage term ends, your lender sends a renewal letter with a rate and a signature line. It is convenient, and that is the point: lenders count on most borrowers signing without shopping. Renewal is the one moment in a mortgage when you can move your entire balance to a better lender at little or no cost. It deserves more than a signature.
Your lender's posted renewal rate is a starting position. The rates it gives new customers, and the rates other lenders would give you to win your business, are often lower. Lenders price renewals on the assumption that switching feels like work. It does not have to.
Start about 120 days before your maturity date. Many lenders will hold a rate for you that far out, so if rates rise you are protected, and if they fall you take the lower one. Leaving it to the last two weeks removes your leverage.
Want to shorten the amortization, add prepayment room, change from variable to fixed, or take some equity out? Renewal is when those changes are cheapest to make. Tell us what has changed in your life and we will shape the new term around it.
A switch at maturity is a new application: income documents, a credit check and the new lender's approval of the property. Rules on qualifying for a straight switch have changed in recent years and differ by lender and by whether the mortgage is insured, so we confirm what applies to your file before you decide. The new lender pays out the old one on the maturity date and the mortgage carries on. You keep living in the same house; only the name on the statement changes.
Canadian Mortgage Group Corp is a mortgage brokerage licensed by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario, Brokerage #11392. This page is general information, not financial advice or an offer of credit. Mortgage products, rates and approval are subject to lender criteria and change without notice (O.A.C.).
Yes. At maturity you can move the balance to any lender that approves you, with no prepayment penalty. Many lenders cover the transfer costs of a straight switch.
Many lenders let you renew or hold a rate up to 120 days before maturity, some longer. Renewing before that usually triggers a prepayment penalty on the old term, so timing matters.
A switch is a new application with the new lender, so yes, they review your income and credit. The qualifying rules for straight switches have changed in recent years and vary by lender and mortgage type; we confirm what applies to you.
No. On most residential mortgages the lender pays us when the mortgage funds, and there is no obligation if you decide to stay where you are.
Most lenders automatically renew you into a term, sometimes at a posted rate that is well above what you could have negotiated. It is the most expensive outcome, and the easiest to avoid.
Tell us a little about what you need. A CMGC broker will reach out with your options, no obligation, no cost.
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