Renewals & refinancing
The renewal letter is an opening offer, not a bill
Lenders price renewal letters knowing most people sign and return them within days. Reading yours against the market takes us about an hour and costs you nothing — and if your lender's offer wins, we'll say so.
Renewals
The renewal clock, worked backwards
- 6 months out Send us your current lender, balance, and maturity date. We start watching the market for your file shape — most lenders let a new rate be held 120 days before maturity.
- 4 months out Your lender's renewal letter usually arrives around now. Don't sign it yet — the first letter is rarely their best number. Forward it to us instead.
- 2–3 months out We bring back the market: switch options, your lender's letter, and what we'd push their retention desk for. A straight switch usually costs nothing — the new lender typically covers appraisal and transfer costs.
- Maturity Sign with whoever earned it — sometimes that's your current lender at a rate the letter never mentioned. Either way, no penalty at renewal.
The rule change in your favour
Since late 2024, a straight switch at renewal — same balance, same amortization, new lender — no longer requires re-passing the stress test, even on uninsured mortgages. The old "you're trapped with your lender because you'd never requalify at today's rates" problem is largely gone. Lenders know it too, which is exactly why comparing has never mattered more.
Refinancing
Breaking a mortgage has a price. Sometimes it's worth paying.
What refinancing can do
- Pull equity — up to 80% of your home's value — for renovations, a purchase, or investing.
- Consolidate high-interest debt into one mortgage-rate payment.
- Restructure after a separation (one spouse keeps the house).
- Reset a payment that no longer fits your life.
What it costs to break
- Variable: usually three months' interest — often a few thousand dollars.
- Fixed: the greater of three months' interest or the IRD (interest-rate differential) — which can run five figures, and which some lenders calculate punishingly off posted rates.
- Plus legal/registration and possibly appraisal — often absorbed by the new lender on a competitive file.
A worked example (illustrative)
$420,000 balance + $30,000 in credit cards at ~21%. Consolidating means a ~$4,100 penalty and a slightly larger mortgage — but the cards were costing roughly $520/month in interest alone. Break-even lands around month nine; after that it's saving money every month. That's the math we run before recommending anything — including the version where you don't refinance and just attack the cards directly.
Honesty note: unlike straight renewal switches, a refinance (new money, longer amortization) does require full requalification under the stress test. All figures illustrative — Copperline Mortgage Co. Inc. (fictional).
Renewal letter in hand?
Send us the letter and your maturity date. Within two business days you'll know whether it's fair — with the market comparison attached either way.