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Posted March 21, 20133 Comments Consumer Debt

Canadian Govt doesn’t want you to find the lowest mortgage rate.

Yesterday, we saw our Federal Minister of Finance, Jim Flaherty, admit to having his office phone up Manulife Financial and ask them to stop advertising their 2.89% 5 year fixed rate mortgage special. An unprecedented move for a government official… Yes, it’s true! But wait, it gets better (or worse). Flaherty admitted to calling up BMO personally, to ask them to stop advertising their 2.99% 5 year fixed rate (NO FRILLS mortgage). click here for the article.

Now, just a comment about these products and rates…. if you are a regular visitor to CanadaMortgageNews.ca then you’ll know the BMO low-rate (or NO FRILLS to be more accurate) is a terrible product with too many restrictions and limitations… Manulife has a decent product….rate is competitive, however, like most other Bank’s, there is some mystery about what their best rates really are… so once again, you can’t rely on a website or bank advertising when it comes to finding the best mortgage…a mortgage broker is the best way to get unbiased advice with access to dozens of Lenders. Continue reading “Canadian Govt doesn’t want you to find the lowest mortgage rate.”

Posted March 5, 2013 Interest rates

BMO’s 2.99% No Frills mortgage is back… and so is our warning to stay away from it!

So you’re shopping for a mortgage… and you see 2.99% advertised by BMO.. and you think, Wow, that’s a great rate!!… but is it really that great? And is it really a great mortgage product?

Well, first, what if I told you there was a lower rate out there? And what if I told you there was a lower rate without the restrictions and limitations of BMO’s NO FRILLS mortgage?

Ok, now that I got your attention, let’s continue…We saw this same product and rate advertised last year, in January 2012. BMO promoted their NO FRILLS, oops, I’m sorry, they want us to call it a ‘low-rate’ mortgage (guess that sounds better). There was a buzz in the air. My phone rang off the hook and my inbox was full of emails asking what this was all about. Continue reading “BMO’s 2.99% No Frills mortgage is back… and so is our warning to stay away from it!”

Posted February 27, 2013 Interest rates

Does 10 yr fixed rates make sense now?…

Fixed rates are still low… and a question I seem to get asked more often these days is, “when does it make sense to take a 10 year fixed rate?” And the answer, for me, is almost never.

Today, you can find a good 10 yr fixed rate under 3.70%. That’s a historical low rate for a 10 yr term. When you hear ‘record low’, it’s worth taking a look.

THE GOOD:

peace of mind… there is something to be said for knowing what your payments will be for the next 10 years. It’s like buying insurance.
we are at historical low 10 year rates.
if you paid your mortgage out after the 5 year mark, your penalty is capped at 3 months interest (a hidden provision in our mortgage laws…. I’m sure the Bankers are trying to get this removed too). Continue reading “Does 10 yr fixed rates make sense now?…”

Posted February 4, 20131 Comment Consumer Debt

Personal Debt level concerns are overblown according to Equifax stats.

So here we go again.. More stats that show our personal debt levels aren’t out of control… That’s right, I said ‘aren’t’ out of control. Equifax Canada says our defaults are at record low levels and we are paying off our debts faster. This doesn’t come as any surprise to me. Anyone that’s followed my posts knows that I have questioned all the popular articles telling us we are not managing our debts responsibly.

You’ve seen the reports… ‘Personal debts at record high levels’…..’Personal Debt crisis’. We’ve been hammered with the same headlines for the past few years. I just wasn’t seeing this with my readers or my clients… I kept seeing consumers wanting to take advantage of these record low interest rates to invest or improve their homes (why is that a bad thing?). That’s not bad debt in my opinion… that’s good debt.. And now we have some stats to back up what I have experienced. Continue reading “Personal Debt level concerns are overblown according to Equifax stats.”

Posted February 1, 201313 Comments Case study

Canada vs the world…debt level comparison study.

Hey, here’s an interesting stat that should make us Canadians feel good…. Our Federal govt keeps telling us to slow our personal debt levels… maybe they should start balancing their own books… I remember when, in 1997, the Feds actually balanced the budget and even made a surplus. Remember that? In fact, from 1997 to 2008, the Feds reduced our national debt from $563billion to $458billion. We seemed to be heading in the right direction.

Then the U.S. sub-prime mortgage crisis hit and the Feds starting spending in an attempt to avoid a major recession. So far, it’s worked. Our economy has performed pretty well when compared with most other countries. But our National Debt level has now surpassed the $600billion mark for the first time ever. How concerned should we really be? Is our national debt level really that high? I decided to compare out debt with a handful of other countries to see how we stacked up….

NOW FOR THE GOOD NEWS

Continue reading “Canada vs the world…debt level comparison study.”