Why ninety days
Because it is roughly the lead time FCAC recommends before a renewal, and because it is long enough to switch lenders and short enough that you will not lose interest. If your renewal is sooner, do it in the same order, faster.
The whole book in ten lines
- Your renewal is a negotiation that arrives looking like a form.
- You have 21 days of protected notice and your lender cannot make the offer worse inside it.
- Do nothing and you may be renewed automatically into whatever was on the form.
- The stress test on switching lenders came off on 21 November 2024 for uninsured straight switches, and in 2023 for insured. Most Canadians were never told.
- The exemption is narrow: federally regulated to federally regulated, no amortization increase, no loan increase beyond $3,000, stand-alone mortgage.
- You cannot switch lenders and extend your amortization in the same transaction.
- The posted rate you never pay is the number your bank uses to build your penalty.
- Pay the highest rate first, always, and a 0% student loan is last.
- Renewal shock shows up on the Visa before it shows up on the mortgage.
- Every rate, every privilege, every penalty formula and every relief measure goes in writing.
If the numbers do not work
Start this week rather than at the end of the ninety days, and do these in order. Every one of the conversations is free.
Your lender's mortgage assistance team, before a payment is missed rather than after. FCAC expects federally regulated lenders to proactively contact at-risk mortgage holders and offer relief — extending the amortization, waiving its own fees, waiving prepayment penalties on a lump sum or a consumer-led sale. They made over 47,000 contacts and delivered 8,466 measures, and more than 5,000 offers were declined. Roughly as many households refused help as took it. Shame is expensive. Ask what it costs in total interest, what is reported to the credit bureaus, and whether it affects your ability to switch later.
A non-profit credit counsellor. The first session is free and no agency may charge a fee up front. Confirm membership of Credit Counselling Canada, and ask for the fees in dollars in writing before signing anything. A debt management program deals with unsecured debt only — it does not touch your mortgage.
A Licensed Insolvency Trustee. Only a trustee can file a consumer proposal or a bankruptcy in Canada. And here is the fact most Canadians have backwards: the $250,000 limit on a consumer proposal explicitly excludes a mortgage secured by your principal residence, and an accepted proposal lets you retain your assets provided you keep paying your secured creditors. You can compromise the cards and keep the house. Ask an LIT what a proposal would do to your ability to renew and to switch lenders, because this book could not answer that and they can.
What actually works
The households that come through a renewal shock are not the ones who found a clever move. They are the ones who found out their real numbers early, made three or four small changes instead of one large one, and asked for the rate rather than accepting the one they were sent. None of that requires expertise. It requires about four hours, spread over ninety days, and the willingness to make a phone call you would rather not make.
