The Myplace Playbook // 060
Hey Everyone,
It's showing up in mailboxes across the country right now.
A letter. Official looking. Your bank's logo at the top. Your name, your address, your mortgage details. And somewhere near the bottom, a rate and a checkbox.
Just sign here to renew.
If you got one of these recently, or you're expecting one in the next few weeks, this edition is for you. Because that letter deserves about five minutes of your attention before it gets your signature.
What the Letter Actually Is
Your bank is required to notify you before your mortgage term ends. That's the law, and that part is fine. What's not required is that they give you their best rate.
What they send you is their posted rate, sometimes dressed up with a small discount to look like they're doing you a favour. It's the rate they're offering to every customer who doesn't ask questions. The path of least resistance. The number that works best for the bank's margin, not your monthly budget.
Most people sign it.
Not because they're careless. Because it arrives looking official and final, the instructions seem simple, and life is busy. Signing feels like getting it done.
But "getting it done" can cost you thousands over the next term, sometimes quietly, sometimes painfully, depending on where that rate lands versus what's actually available.
What's Actually Available Right Now
The Bank of Canada is holding at 2.25%, with prime sitting at 4.45%. Fixed rates have stayed higher than a lot of people hoped, partly because oil running hot has kept inflation risk on the table and bond yields elevated.
That said, the rate your bank offered you in that letter is almost certainly not the best fixed rate available to you today.
Lenders compete for mortgage business. They just don't advertise it to people who've already shown they'll sign without shopping.
The difference between your bank's posted renewal rate and what a broker can access often lands somewhere between 0.25% and 0.75%. On a $400,000 mortgage, that's not a rounding error. That's hundreds of dollars a year. Over a five-year term, it adds up to real money, the kind that pays for a summer at the lake, a vehicle, or a few years of kids' activities.
The 30-Day Window You Shouldn't Waste
Here's the thing most people don't know: you don't have to wait until your renewal date to act. Most lenders will let you lock in a new rate up to 120 days before your term ends, and some will go earlier than that.
That matters right now because rates have shown they can move fast. We watched fixed rates tick up when oil spiked. The same can happen in reverse, or not. Nobody knows for sure.
What you can control is having a rate hold in place so you're not scrambling in the last two weeks before your renewal.
If you got a renewal letter, here's what I'd suggest doing in the next 30 days:
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Don't sign it yet. Set it aside. You have time.
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Send me the rate they offered you. Just reply to this email with the number. I'll tell you honestly whether it's competitive or whether there's something better on the table.
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Let me pull a few options. It takes me less than a day to run comparisons across multiple lenders. No cost, no commitment.
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Then decide. Sometimes your bank's offer is fine. Sometimes there's a meaningfully better option. Either way, you'll know, instead of guessing.
One More Thing Worth Knowing
Your renewal is also the best time to look at the structure of your mortgage, not just the rate.
Maybe your payment felt tight this past term. Maybe you've got other debts you'd like to clean up. Maybe your life looks different than it did five years ago, different income, different family size, different plans.
A renewal isn't just a rate transaction. It's a checkpoint. And if you're working with the right person, it's a chance to reset things in a way that actually fits where you're headed, not just where you've been.
Your Move
If that letter is on your kitchen counter right now, or arriving soon, don't let it sit there until the deadline makes the decision for you.
Reply and tell me: what rate did they offer you, and when does your term end?
That's all I need to get started.
-Andrew
Find out what’s possible!
You can build a quick mortgage scenario online in under a minute–or just hit reply and I’ll run it for you.