Mortgage renewal checklist for Canadians: how to review your offer before it renews

Your lender's renewal letter is an offer, not a verdict. That is the heart of any mortgage renewal checklist for Canadians: before you sign, you compare. If you do nothing, your mortgage typically rolls into a new term on whatever terms the lender put in that letter, which makes doing nothing a decision — and usually the more expensive one. The checklist below walks you through reading the offer, checking what leaving would cost, comparing at least one alternative, and deciding on purpose.

Here is the short version. Know your maturity date. Read the fine print. Pull your credit reports. Get an outside comparison. Ask your current lender to compete. Confirm everything in writing before the deadline. LoanGoose is a loan matching and comparison service, not a lender — it does not make loans, set rates, or make credit decisions. Lenders handle all of that, using their own criteria.

Why renewal is your best negotiating moment

Mid-term, leaving usually costs you a penalty. At maturity, the calculation changes: you can move to another lender without breaking your contract, and lenders know it. That is why renewal offers sometimes improve once you say you are shopping around.

It also helps to understand what you are comparing. Most people focus only on the rate. The rate matters, but the term length, the prepayment privileges, and the cost of exiting early matter just as much over the life of the mortgage. A slightly lower rate attached to a long term and strict prepayment terms can cost you more than a slightly higher rate you are free to pay down aggressively.

One technical detail worth knowing: Canadian fixed-rate mortgages are compounded semi-annually by law, which affects how both interest and some penalty calculations work. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada explains how compounding and prepayment interact if you want the mechanics.

Your renewal checklist, step by step

1. Find your maturity date and any notice requirement. Your renewal deadline is a hard date. Mark it, and mark a reminder to act well before it.
2. Read the renewal offer line by line. Rate, term, payment frequency, prepayment privileges, and any fees. Do not skim the sections about charges.
3. Ask what it would cost to leave. Request the payout and discharge figures in writing. Fixed and variable mortgages are calculated differently, so the number may surprise you.
4. Pull your credit reports. A free copy is available from each of Canada's two national bureaus, Equifax Canada and TransUnion Canada, and the FCAC guide to credit reports and scores shows you how to request them. Correct anything wrong before a new lender looks.
5. Get at least one outside comparison. One competing offer turns a take-it-or-leave-it letter into a negotiation.
6. Take the comparison back to your current lender. Ask directly whether they can match it. Sometimes they can. Sometimes they cannot, and that answer is useful too.
7. Decide: stay, switch, or restructure. If cash flow is tight, extending the amortization or changing payment frequency may help. If you want to tap equity, that is a different conversation with different rules.
8. Confirm in writing before maturity. Verbal assurances are not terms. Get the final rate, term, and payment schedule on paper.

What to compare on any renewal offer

Switching lenders at renewal: what is actually involved

A switch means a new lender pays out your existing mortgage and registers a new charge on the same property. You will be underwritten again under that lender's criteria, which means income verification, a credit check, and a fresh look at the property. Switching is usually smoother at maturity than mid-term, because you are not breaking a contract.

Compare the savings against the costs honestly. A lower rate over a short remaining amortization may not cover discharge and registration costs. Run the numbers for your own situation, not the average.

If you are thinking about taking equity out while you are at it, the rules change. At federally regulated lenders, a home equity line of credit is generally limited to 65% of appraised property value, with total secured lending usually capped at 80%. That is a different product with a different risk profile, and borrowing against your home to consolidate other debt only works if you also stop adding to that debt.

The stress test still shapes the decision

Staying with your existing lender and renewing on the same amortization is usually the simplest path, and it does not normally require you to requalify. Increasing the amount, extending the amortization, or moving to a new lender generally does.

When you are underwritten, federally regulated mortgage lenders generally work to a total debt service ratio ceiling of about 44% and apply a qualifying stress-test rate above the contract rate, as set out in OSFI Guideline B-20. In plain terms, you may be tested at a higher rate than the one you sign. If your other debts have grown since your last renewal, that test is where they show up.

Do not bridge a renewal gap with high-cost credit

Sometimes a renewal lands at a bad moment: a layoff, a separation, a large repair. Short-term credit can look like a stopgap, and it is worth knowing what it costs. Where a province operates a licensed payday lending regime, federal payday lending regulations cap the cost of borrowing at $14 per $100 advanced, and a province may set a lower cap; the lower figure applies. A payday loan is generally up to $1,500 for a term of 62 days or less, and Quebec does not license payday lending, which effectively prohibits the model there. The FCAC overview of payday loans covers how the rules work, and the Payday Lending Regulations, SOR/2024-114 set out the federal cap.

On the legal ceiling side, the Criminal Code rate of interest under section 347 is 35% per year, calculated by a defined method that aggregates interest and certain charges. That is a criminality threshold, not a benchmark — legitimate mortgage costs sit far below it.

If the renewal number does not fit your budget

Ask about the levers first: extending the amortization to lower the payment (which increases total interest), changing payment frequency, or restructuring within the same lender. Those are usually cheaper than missing a payment.

If the problem is broader — unmanageable unsecured debt sitting on top of the mortgage — the formal options are a consumer proposal or bankruptcy, and only a licensed insolvency trustee can administer either. Trustees are regulated by the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy Canada. Both routes carry long credit consequences: a consumer proposal stays on your credit report for three years after completion, or six years from filing, whichever comes first, and a first bankruptcy stays for six years after discharge. These are significant decisions with real trade-offs. Speak with a licensed insolvency trustee or a non-profit credit counsellor before you commit.

Where to get help, and where to complain

The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada publishes plain-language material on mortgages, personal loans, and debt. If something goes wrong with a federally regulated financial institution, consumer complaints go through the FCAC complaints process. Provinces license and supervise most other lenders, and each has a consumer protection office — the FCAC keeps a list of provincial and territorial regulators.

Finally, keep your own file. Every renewal offer, payout statement, credit report, and comparison belongs in one folder. Next time the letter arrives, you will be starting from evidence instead of from scratch.

LoanGoose is a loan matching and comparison service, not a lender. The lowest rates are only available to the most qualified applicants.