No, you will not encounter any penalties if you switch from your current variable rate to a 5 year fixed rate with the same bank in Canada. The banks want you locked in to collect the interest and to have you as a long term client.

This is a hard question to answer. What I advise clients is if they find that the fixed rate is affordable given their current consideration and they do not want any fluctuation in rates, they should lock in. Historically in the last 10 years, the variable rate mortgages have out performed the fixed rate mortages. This is prior to all of the economic issues we are having at the moment. There are also some positive things about variable like lenders normally use 3 months interest as a penalty to get out of a mortgage instead of the IRD concept. You can also follow what the economists are saying abot overnight lending rates if the Bank of Canada will change them soon. You can only speculate based on what you believe will happen in the future. If the difference between fixed and variable is less than 1%, it may be worth it.

Hello, I did a calculation based on your details above. The difference in monthly payment is $62 per month based on 5 year term that is a savings of $3720... But the savings does not stop there. The remaining mortgage balance at the end of the 5 year term is different for both rates, the difference is an additional savings of $1610. So a total savings of $5330! As for the penalty to break with your bank they are the best source of info for this. Give your branch a call and ask them what is the penalty if I pay off my mortgage completely in 30 days from today. That number should be less than the savings you see above. For other readers if your interest rate is higher than the 3.6% you see in this question then the savings is higher as well. I switched a mortgage for a client who had a higher mortgage balance and was at 5.7% interest rate (the rate at the time 3 years ago) He was quoted a penalty of $13,000 to break from his bank, after doing the calculations he did break and pay the penalty because he saved $33,000 over the next 2 years in interest. He almost tripled his initial penalty. There is no investment product that can return this kind of money into your pocket short of loan sharking!! The proof is in the numbers so I encourage anybody who is interested in at least looking into this please give me a call I can do the analysis and send you info for you to decide for yourself. It is not common knowledge so I must mention that at the end of the 25-30-35 year amortization of your mortgage you will end up paying double the amount or your original mortgage balance back to the bank in interest. I can help you find ways to minimize that, give me a call today. Abraham Niyazi - Mortgage Agent - Lic#M08010640 - Centum One FInancial Corp - Lic 10758. Cell: 416-993-4082 Toll Free: 1-866-728-3708 x 115 http://www.centum.ca/abraham_niyazi/ I deal with 25 Banks/Lenders and can do mortgages across Canada except Quebec.