CategoryBank News

Posted January 21, 20151 Comment Bank News

Interest rate surprise? Not to our readers! : Bank of Canada drops key lending rate to 0.75%

Last week, I made a bold statement about interest rates. I said rates will remain low for some time. And they could even decline.

That forecast was met with a certain degree of criticism. Well, no surprise for CanadaMortgageNews.ca followers, the Bank of Canada cut the rate by 0.25% to 0.75%.

This means Variable Mortgage rates will fall by 0.25%. It also means we’ll probably see fixed rate mortgages also fall….. As I predicted.

Stay tuned for more details on this…

http://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/business/key-interest-rate-unexpectedly-lowered-1.2198493

Your best interest is my only interest. I reply to all questions and I welcome your comments. Like this article? Share with a friend.

Steve Garganis 416 224 0114 steve@mortgagenow.ca

Posted October 21, 20142 Comments Bank News

RBC charges homeowner $8900 penalty, or 15 months interest charge!

Picture this… Your mortgage is with the biggest Canadian Bank in Canada. You feel safe. You got a great rate at the time… 2.99%. What could go wrong? Well, for these clients, and hundreds others, plenty!

Check out the RBC Discharge stmnt oct 2014 showing an Interest Rate Differential (IRD) prepayment penalty of $8912 on a mortgage balance of $213,562. Now, $8912 is a lot of money, but you’ve seen me expose even higher penalties in the past. Penalties as high as $35,000 and $40,000. But, put another way, that’s over 15 months worth of interest penalty being charged. And that’s just ridiculous!

NEWS FLASH! This type of inflated prepayment penalty calculation isn’t exclusive to RBC, the rest of the BIG SIX BANKS use a similar calculation. And they’ve been getting away with these outrageous penalties for over 14 years! (actually, this isn’t a new story.. I’ve been writing about these nightmare, or bankmare, penalties for years.)

Let me put this another way…. Continue reading “RBC charges homeowner $8900 penalty, or 15 months interest charge!”

Posted October 8, 20142 Comments Bank News

Senior Deputy Governor says lower rates are the new normal.

In her first public speech as Senior Deputy Governor for the Bank of Canada, Carolyn Wilkins brought some good news to Canadians with mortgages. Interest rates should remain low for some time….. and we can expect lower rates to be the “new normal”.

Ms. Wilkins went on to say that “the recovery has had repeated false starts and still faces considerable headwinds.” This seems to be the new message coming from the Bank of Canada. And I must say, it’s a refreshing change from the previous high-profile Governor, Mark Carney.

UNPOPULAR COMMENTS

Remember our previous Bank of Canada governor? Mr. Carney earned high praise for helping Canada avoid any U.S. style recession. But in the years leading up to his 2013 departure, his repeated warnings of pending interest rate hikes never materialized. In fact, we now know they were way off. Interest rates went down and have stayed down. Looking back, Carney’s rate hike warnings sounded more like ‘the boy who cried wolf’. Continue reading “Senior Deputy Governor says lower rates are the new normal.”

Posted September 8, 20143 Comments Bank News

Federal govt finally takes action on Collateral mortgages.

Almost 4 years ago, I reported that TD was about to make one of the biggest changes in mortgage history. They were about to register all their mortgages as a collateral charge. Consumer advocates spoke out against the collateral charge as they recognized it would limit a borrower’s future options.

A collateral charge is always used for secured lines of credit products. The charge does not require an amortization which allows the credit balance to go up and down. Using a collateral charge for ALL mortgage products gives the Banks more power. It allows them to attach other unsecured debt to your mortgage… Unsecured credit products such as loans, credit cards, unsecured lines of credit or other unsecured Bank debt. I bet most people don’t know that? Continue reading “Federal govt finally takes action on Collateral mortgages.”

Posted June 9, 2013 Bank News

Banks raise mortgage rates

RBC is raising their rates… As expected, fixed mortgage rates have gone up. RBC is the first of the BIG SIX to raise their rates. RBC’s 4 yr rate special will go to 3.09% from 2.99% and their 5 yr rate special will go to 3.29% from 2.99%.

Of course, these are NOT the best rates in the wholesale mortgage market, nor are they the best fixed rate products. But RBC is the largest mortgage lender in Canada, so we must take note. This rate increase is no surprise. As reported on May 13th and May 28th, bond yields had increased over 30bps in May. A rate increase was imminent.

Wholesale mortgage rates started to go up a few weeks ago. And as of June 10th, all Lenders will have increased their rates by around 10bps.

Remember, 5 yr fixed rates are still below 3.00%. I don’t think there is any reason to panic. We can expect the other BIG SIX banks to follow with their own rate increases. Fixed rates are closely tied to the Canadian govt bond yields. And with the stock market in the U.S. hitting unexpected record highs, and the our own Toronto Stock market making significant gains, it was only a matter of time before rates moved. Economists still believe rates won’t go up quickly. It will take time for rates to go up significantly.

Your best interest is my only interest.

As always, I welcome your comments, calls and questions.

Steve Garganis 416 224 0114 steve@mortgagenow.ca