I see ws pine advertise 4.1% fixed but I don't think they do helocs

Ah yes, sorry misread it.

Bank P on heloc is 5.45% still

So you prompted me to call my broker earlier. I am due Jul 2026 and I'm locked in at 5.07%

Get this, he offers to break my mortgage, no penalty and refinance at 4.2%. Is it the absolute lowest we can get right now? Probably not. I think I've seen ppl talk about 3.99 or 4.1.

But NO penalty

It saves me $750/m of interest a month with a few signatures.

It depends on how much you owe, they ain't gonna give you anywhere close to 4.2% if you owe like $100k

Also I think it doesn't make sense to lock at this point. There's gonna be another rate cut end of this month. They are gonna keep cutting this point, cuz we ain't got no balls against trump at this point. I don't see what will make us all ball hard in 2025.

The market is increasingly pessimistic that there will be many more rate cuts but, more importantly, the bond market isn't responding to the rate cuts so fixed rate mortgages don't seem to be moving down much at all - we've seen 125bps in rate cuts but fixed rate mortgages have barely dropped 25bps. Variable follows the bank rate but if we don't see another 100-125bps of cuts it's not going to be worth the risk to go with variable as the spread just isn't big enough.

6 months ago, I had thought I might be able to get a 3% rate by end of year (I can renew between Apr-Oct) but that's looking like a feverish dream. I'd take 4% if I could get it (from 5.37%)

See: https://stevesaretsky.substack.com/p...dRedirect=true

My broker isn't high on the rates coming down much more. Neither am I.

I asked him if it would be worthwhile to go variable. His answer was variable is half a percent more right now. You have probably a year before you can beat that rate and this puts money in your pocket right now vs a year later.

We broke your fixed term at 18 months. We can break it again if the market calls for it.

Reading between the lines, the bank has zero problems breaking terms without penalty in the near to medium term. My guess is cause I am at risk of moving it to another bank and they are clawing on, business is slow.

Holy good lord~! That's almost enough money for an extra track day every month! (All costs taken into account.)

Does your wife also need to sign to get the renewed mortgage terms? If she doesn't, then she doesn't need to know! :lawl:

always call on another broker and find out the real data. Of course the current guy wants you to stay.

the only time you don't need your wife / husband on signatures is when you do a lump sum payment.

It's mostly just gonna mean we aren't as tight every month, and it'll help us fund the vacation to Japan in a few months.

My brother wants to get the whole family together for traveling before my dad can no longer walk, so it's gonna be a lot of vacationing the next few years.

We've done that a few times, but typically it's 0.1 - 0.2% difference at most between the big banks. It's only when you go to the 3rd tier lenders do you get a bigger spread. The 3rd tier lenders typically have very stringent terms on breaking and repayment, and from 2nd hand anecdotes they don't make service easy.

If you’ve got a good broker I don’t think they are out to make that minuscule commission on keeping you with the same bank. Although I will say ours who has been a friend prior to being our broker used to work for Scotia and she seems like she has an interest in pushing Scotia over others when the rates are the same.. not exactly sure what she would get out of it.

With that said I wouldn’t recommend Scotia, have had numerous bad experiences with them to date, including pulling 12k out of an account we had with them without showing a single piece of ID..

Scotia usually has higher rates, but they tend to be more lenient from what I've heard. Also less payment flexibility. She probably gets the most cash back from them. Obviously she's not making the least amount from them.

She provides us with rates across the board and if everything is equal, you may as well renew with who your existing provider is

Our broker is my wife's uncle and so it complicates things a bit for us. Because it's family, we can't necessarily grind him down our shop around like we might do with any other random broker.

That said, there are other benefits he gives us, so it kind of balances out.

What he told is for the past few months Coast Capital has been the best for rates, they have been going agressively against the banks to win more business and so a lot of his clients are moving over there.

Another thing he mentioned is that because the market is slower, lenders are a lot more aggressive when it comes to keeping your business at the time of renewal. So it pays to talk to your existing lender and bargain a bit with them because they have a vested interest in keeping your mortgage with them. In our case, TD agreed to essentially match CC but we had to ask for it.

was driving in richmond and someone tied a sign to a tree saying "private mortgage 778 xxxxxxx "

I have a feeling that was the case which is why we were allowed to break our mortgage penalty free, so we don't end up taking our business elsewhere.

What rate is your uncle getting from CC? I wonder if I should wring my agent's arm a little now since you got TD to match, cause we are with TD.

All banks mess up tho, i had identify fraud twice within a few months thanks to a simswap scam.
When i went to rbc to get cash since i locked my account, the teller did not ask me for any ID, despite their system showing a red flag on my account.
The branch manager came up to approve the withdrawal, and asked him if checked my ID, to which all three of us just looked at each other in disappointment :badpokerface:
Furthermore one time when i called in, the phone agent did not ask any verification questions. Although rumor has it they have voice identification software that recognized it was me?

PS: evofire, thats an incredible reduction without penalty, dont forget to get some lobster tonight!

I got 3.9% 3-y Fixed on renewal at scotia on $355K remaining $420K starting in Dec.

TD Offered 4.3% 3-y fixed + $3K cash back

RFD quoting 4.1-4.3% at that time, not sure how I got it, my friend doing the same renewal got offered 4.2%

I got a 3.99 3yr fixed mortgage back in Oct 2024. I dealt directly with the bank. The broker I dealt with with in previous transactions could not match anything close to what the mortgage advisor at the respective banks could do for me. Moving forward, I don't think I will ever go through a broker again and just go directly to the banks

I shopped with BMO and CIBC, but I ultimately went with CIBC because they reimbursed some legal fees and gave a bigger cash back (although BMO would've matched the cash back but not the legal fees).

^ I'm probably forgoing my cashback based on what you guys are saying, but my cashback isn't going to be enough to cover almost 10k of penalties (based on 3 month worth of interest)

5 YEAR VARIABLE

TD - 4.89%

CC - 4.79%

3 YEAR FIXED

4.39% (both)

5 YEAR FIXED

4.24% (both)

TD is our incumbent and according to our broker, we have to deal with TD directly, they don't work with brokers on a renewal. That said, sounds like you might have some leverage to ask for better.

Yes, you're most likely correct on that. Without knowing your outstanding amount owed a cashback solely wouldn't cover the costs of switching lenders and 4.2% is a pretty competitive rate (dependent on your term)



Brokers do not work banks for renewals that is correct but that shouldn't stop them from trying to get you (the customer) the best rates possible. That is why many shop for rates around renewals as the rates will be better as well as many lenders will absorb the legal fees just to get your business.

Based on that, I don't think I can get lower. But I'm happy. My goal in life isn't to wring every cent out of everything. Too stressful that way, just whatever that makes me happy.