The Details: What you need to know about “discount mortgages.”
Grandma always said, “The price is the price, but the details are the details!”
There are discounted and restricted mortgage rates out there but they do not share the details of their disadvantages up front with you.
- Restricted or Limited Products / Bait & Switch
People will not even sign a 3 year cell- phone contact any more but they will try to save $15 a month on a restricted mortgage; which could cost them $30,000 as a payout penalty – BUYER BEWARE is what the regulators say.
Brokers often advertise these products to get you to call them and then they switch you into a “regular product” if you are lucky – or you get a “restricted product” that you probably do not want if you know all the details.
Discount mortgages called “limited” or “restricted” and often have:
- No rate holds
- Only monthly payments
- Only 1 statement a year
- No on-line administration = call centre only
- Only 5/5 extra repayment option – most broker lenders are 15/15 + 2x or 20/20
- The 1st number is the % of the original mortgage amount you can repay every year without penalty
- The 2nd number is the increase in monthly payment in % you can do without penalty.
- The 2x = double the payment!
- And they use the bank payout penalty calculations – as below in the Dirty Trick – AND in addition to that penalty, a 3% fee of the entire mortgage balance added to the penalty!
- This could easily end up at $30,000.
The other main “Details” that are not often disclosed are:
2.Collateral Charge
To keep you from leaving the bank for a lower rate when you renew later, the banks register your mortgage as a collateral charge – which is the same as an “I owe you” / IOU for the home. Other banks will not take another banks IOU for a mortgage; which means:
- A lawyer will have to re-register your mortgage at land titles; $1000.
- An appraisal is needed as the registration is usually for more than the value of the home; $450
- http://blog.markherman.ca/?s=collateral
- This means on renewal you will not get the best rates because it will cost you about $1500 – $2500 to move banks – even after your term is over.
3. The “Dirty Trick” of how the banks calculate your payout penalty
- If you have to move or break your mortgage the payout calculation is usually way lower at a broker-only bank than any of the big banks. The big banks all calcualte the penatly the same way now – to their advantage, not yours.
- http://blog.markherman.ca/2015/08/26/payout-penalties-how-the-big-5-banks-get-you/
To avoid these products, or to disucss what your personal situation may be, call us any time at 403-681-4376.
Mark Herman, Top Calgary, Alberta, mortgage broker for renewals, first time home buyers and home purchases.
More bad news about collateral loans
More collateral info in the press. As we have been saying for more than a year now; collateral loans can trap you later. Leverage the expertise of a person who has dealt with mortgages all day for more than 10 years when deciding what is best for you.
Short version of the article below: it is going to cost you about $2,500 to get out of a mortgage with a collateral charge when the term is done. That is not a “payout penalty” but the cost to re-register your mortgage later at a different bank when they try to renew you at a higher rate at the end of your term.
Mark Herman, top Calgary Alberta Mortgage Broker for Renewals
Search "collateral" in this blog search bar to see the other articles on this topic.
A collateral mortgage can trap you: Roseman
You may want to change lenders at the end of a mortgage term. But with a collateral mortgage, your freedom to move will be constrained.
Your residential mortgage is coming up for renewal. Your lender won’t match the competition, so you decide to get a better rate elsewhere.
Moving a mortgage at the end of a three-year or five-year term is no big deal. The new provider usually covers any transfer fees.
But switching is more costly if you have a collateral mortgage. You must hire a lawyer and pay about $1,000 to discharge the mortgage before you can move to a new lender.
Since 2010, TD Canada Trust has sold only collateral mortgages. Tangerine Bank (formerly ING Direct) changed to collateral mortgages in 2011. National Bank also offers them.
Having a collateral mortgage affects your ability to transfer your mortgage to a new lender and your ability to borrow additional funds. It can also affect your ability to discharge the mortgage after repaying the loan in full.Many people don’t know the difference between a conventional and a collateral mortgage, since the information is buried in the fine print of a detailed agreement.
Last August federal Finance Minister Joe Oliver announced an agreement with eight major banks, under which they would voluntarily disclose general information about collateral mortgages at their websites by Sept. 1, 2014, and in their branches by Nov. 30, 2014.
Finally, the banks would provide specific information to consumers who were entering into a new mortgage agreement by Jan. 31, 2015.
Has voluntary disclosure worked? I found almost nothing when checking the banks’ websites. But the Canadian Bankers Association’s website has an article, “Mortgage Security,” to which individual members can provide links.
With a conventional charge, only the amount of the actual mortgage loan is registered against your home. If you borrow $250,000, the lender will register a $250,000 amount as a liability on your property.
With a collateral charge, an amount higher than the actual mortgage loan may be registered against your home. If you borrow $250,000, the lender can choose to register a $300,000 or $400,000 amount.
This allows you to get an extra $50,000 to $100,000 at a later date, secured by the mortgage, without having to discharge the loan and go through a costly refinancing. However, you must meet certain conditions in order to borrow more money.
“You will need to apply and be approved by the lender for the increased amount, based on the current criteria of the lender, your ability to repay the mortgage loan and verification that your home’s value supports the mortgage loan request,” says the CBA.
Dan Faubert, an Ottawa mortgage broker, wrote a blog post last August about thepitfalls of a collateral mortgage. He used the example of John Smith (not his real name), who was denied a loan to fix up his home.
The man owned a home worth $375,000. He had $25,000 left on his mortgage and a $250,000 balance on his home equity line of credit — a total debt of $275,000.
Unfortunately, he didn’t know the bank had registered a $375,000 mortgage against his home. Most collateral mortgages are registered at 100 per cent of the property’s value and some go up to 125 per cent, depending on the lender.
Smith wanted $25,000 to renovate. He was planning to sell his house. But since he was retired and had a lower income than when he borrowed the money, he didn’t qualify for a bank loan.
Faubert couldn’t get him any more money, nor could any other mortgage broker, since the collateral mortgage was registered for 100 per cent of the property’s value.
Smith had borrowed $275,000 and his home was worth $375,000, but there was no equity against which to register a mortgage. It is a dilemma that could face other Canadians who carry a mortgage with them into retirement.
“Any mortgage with any bank that has multiple products in one mortgage is also registered as a collateral mortgage,” says Faubert, who recommends asking lenders for an explanation before agreeing to new financing.
I predict the trend to collateral mortgages will spread. Banks benefit by making it more difficult — or impossible, in some cases — to switch lenders before a mortgage is discharged.
Oliver should check the banks’ voluntary disclosure under the agreement announced last year. Customers need to know in clear terms, explained by a real person and not just in fine print, about a key change to the standard mortgage contract.
http://www.thestar.com/business/2015/02/17/a-collateral-mortgage-can-trap-you-roseman.html