HSBC is offering really competitive (I think) mortgage rates to their premier customers. One of the options they have is variable 3 year closed with no penalty. Does anyone have any experience with this? How cheap is it go to another lender and get another mortgage after 3 years? Sorry I am a mortgage virgin.

Cheers

Just a real quick reply to post this link. It has a pretty comprehensive list of Mortgage rates for Canada over various terms. If you speak to a broker they may be able to even beat some of these that are listed, but it will let you know if the 3-year rate you have from HSBC is competitive.

Others will be able to post better advice on advantages/disadvantages of 3 year over other terms.

For us we intially landed in Canada and bought on a 3-year term, it offered the most felixbility for us at that point on a 2-year visa without paying up too much for the rate. We are now PRs and the 3-year matured so moved to a 5-year.

The table is a bit misleading in that it quotes the big bank's posted rates. Most people with decent credit and loan to value ratio can negotiate something off these rates. I would look at ING Direct or Presidents Choice for a competitive rate.

Switching a mortgage at the end of the term is easy. The old mortgage holder might have some fees in the loan agreement to do this ($200?) but you can negotiate away any new bank's fees.

Hace you tried TD Bank?

i priced out breaking my mortgage 24 mo early to get a better rate, it would have cost us $9000 to do so.

I went with HSBC on their variable rate. What I did though to attempt to balance things out should rates rise etc is to take a short amortization and also make bi-weekly payments. My aim was to always be making a payment I was comfortable with, and when rates are low this will be an overpayment (amazing the effect of overpaying has on the balance).

Take a look at this http://www2.manulifeone.ca/en/home/

Hi

There are more to mortgages then just the posted rate. An old friend of mine always said "sometimes the price on the ticket is not what you will pay".

You need to make sure that the terms of the mortgage are also favorable and that you have the mortgage privileges that you need or want such as; portability, assumability, prepayment etc. Prepayment is particularly good at getting the principle down whilst the rates are so low.

I have used this guy a lot as he is very patient and knowledgable. He has rates posted on his site. http://www.fernbrunet.ca/ with a lot of useful information.

Hope this helps