Month six: know your position
Pull your mortgage details: balance, rate, maturity date, prepayment privileges, and whether it is a standard or collateral charge. Check your credit reports for surprises. Decide what you want the next term to accomplish: lower payment, shorter amortization, equity for a project, or simply the best rate.
Month four: shop the market
This is when rate holds open up, typically one hundred and twenty days out. Get competing written quotes through a broker, which costs nothing and creates no obligation. If your life has changed, income up or down, new debts, renovation plans, this is the moment to structure around it.
- Two or three written competing quotes
- A rate hold locked in as insurance
- Any restructure plans discussed now, not at maturity
Month two: negotiate and decide
Take the best competing offer to your current lender. If they match or beat it, staying is free and simple. If they will not, start the switch: application, appraisal, legal instructions. Switches take two to four weeks, so month two is the latest comfortable decision point.
Final month: sign clean
Review the new commitment line by line: rate, term, amortization, prepayment privileges, and any collateral registration. Confirm the discharge and transfer dates. Do not take on new credit or change jobs between signing and the transfer date, because the new lender re-verifies before funding.
Frequently asked questions
- What if my lender's renewal offer arrives early?
- Treat it as an opening bid, not a deadline. You are free to negotiate or switch until maturity, regardless of when their letter arrives.
- Can I switch lenders if my finances got worse?
- Switching requires re-qualifying. If the file has weakened, renewing with your current lender, no re-qualification needed, is usually the safe play.
- Is it worth a broker at renewal?
- Yes. Renewal shopping through a broker costs you nothing, produces competing written quotes, and gives you negotiating leverage even if you stay put.