Renewal strategy, refinance math, and cutting interest cost at the term change.
Porting a mortgage protects a fixed quantity of cheap money, not a rate. On a $480,000 balance at 2.89%, adding $140,000 of new money at 5.09% blends to 3.387% and still saves $552.06 a month against writing the whole $620,000 at today’s market rate.
An amortization extension cuts a $3,442 renewal payment to $2,803 on a $520,000 balance at 5.09%. Over the five-year term that relief costs $5,158 in extra interest and $43,508 in equity you would otherwise have built. Here is the arithmetic, the rules on who can ask, and how to keep the option without paying for it.
Your charge type decides how cheaply you can shop your renewal. Here is what a collateral charge mortgage costs to leave, which lenders use one, and the rate gap that makes moving worth it.
Your lender's blend and extend offer is not a discount — it prices the added months at its current rate. On a $500,000 mortgage at 3.79% with 48 months left, the blend lands at 3.90%, and it only pays if the renewal rate four years out beats about 4.39%. Here is the math, the penalty you are actually avoiding, and what to ask before you sign.
A mortgage prepayment penalty on a $485,000 balance at 5.49% is $6,657 under the three months' interest method and $13,095 under the discount-adjusted posted-rate IRD. With the best five-year fixed at 4.34%, here is which borrowers clear the penalty by refinancing and which do not.
At a 4.04% contract rate you qualify at roughly 6.04%, which cuts a $120,000 household's maximum mortgage from about $643,700 to $529,400. Here is how the qualifying rate and debt service ratios work — and the one renewal exception most borrowers miss.
Rolling $59,000 of credit card, car and line-of-credit debt into a $380,000 mortgage cuts the monthly payment by $1,292.31 — and costs about $11,879 more in interest over 20 years. Here is the honest math both ways, plus the fix.
On a $450,000 renewal with 20 years left, the gap between an illustrative 4.79% bank offer and a market 4.04% is $177.83 a month and $15,079 over five years after switch costs. Here is what moving involves, and when staying is the smarter call.
A mortgage rate hold is free: it caps your rate for 90 to 120 days at most lenders, and most will still give you the lower rate if the market drops. Taken now, a 120-day hold covers both the October 28 and December 9 Bank of Canada decisions.
CMHC puts about 1.15 million Canadian mortgages up for renewal in 2026, on top of 1.5 million already renewed. A $600,000 mortgage from 2021 at 1.99% goes from $2,537.81 a month to $3,046.84 at today's best insured fixed rate.
Most Canadian lenders allow a penalty-free renewal about 120 days before maturity, and some allow more. See what the major banks publish, how renewing early differs from breaking early, the start-date trap that can cost thousands, and how rising bond yields affect timing in 2026.
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