Everybody wants to save money on their mortgage!
A new home buyer is especially diligent when shopping for the best mortgage.
They make the effort to:
find out the options
compare rates and costs
compare flexibility
This home buyer then moves into their new home and their mortgage can easily become something they don’t think about often. They might have a growing family and an ambitious career. In the meantime, the mortgage payments are happening on automatic pilot.
Eventually their lender sends them a letter to let them know that their mortgage is coming up for term renewal. That borrower is faced with some decisions to sort out.
1. Should they do things the “easy” way and sign the offer from their current lender?
2. Should they ask their lender for a better rate?
3. Should they move their mortgage to another lender?
The answer? You guessed it! Don’t Renew! Renegotiate!
1. Call your lender and ask them for their best offer and ask them to send it to you in writing.
2. Work with a broker who has access to many different lenders so you can better assess your options. Even if that broker has not worked with you before, they can still help you sort out your renewal.
3. Have the broker compare options for you including the option from your current lender. This analysis will include any possible costs for moving the mortgage and list possible advantages to moving to another lender.
4. Then decide. It will cost you nothing to ask and it could save you thousands of dollars.
Remember the effort when you first bought your home? Well you only need a small fraction of that effort to ensure you get the best mortgage when renewing your mortgage term.
It is not unheard of to have a mortgage renewal offer of a whopping 1% higher than competitive rates. On a mortgage of $400 000 that would cost approximately $4000 extra per year! I have also seen decent renewal offers where it was clear that the client was fine to stay where they were.
No matter what your final decision, it pays to consult with a Dominion Lending Centres mortgage broker before you sign the “easy “offer from your current lender. Go ahead and make that call.
Courtesy of Christina Horvath, AMP – DLC Primex Mortgages