Mortgage Renewal Rates: Is Your Renewal Offer Any Good?

A renewal offer is worth keeping when it sits near the lowest rate available for the same term and the same insured status. As of late October 2026, renewal offers on this board run 4.40% to 4.89% on three-year fixed, and 4.69% (Scotiabank) to 4.79% (BMO, insured) on five-year fixed. The lowest advertised five-year fixed around October 28 was about 4.34% to 4.59%.

That gap is the whole point of this page. A renewal letter is an offer written for someone who might not look elsewhere, and the first number on it is not always the lender's best one. The rows below are what borrowers posted, with dates and links, so you can see where your own letter lands before you sign anything.

Renewal Letter Rates Reported By Bank

Every row here is a public comment on r/MortgagesCanada, quoted as posted. None is a lender advertisement and none is a guarantee for your file. Status matters: an insured mortgage and an uninsured one are priced differently, and the poster does not always say which.

Read down the 3-year rows and the spread is 4.40% to 4.89% across five banks, about half a point between the cheapest and the dearest. On a $400,000 balance over 20 years, 4.89% costs $2,604.80 a month and 4.44% costs $2,508.94, a difference of $95.86 every month for the length of the term. All five are large, federally regulated banks, and each sends a renewal statement. What differs is the file, the insured status, the date and what the borrower compared.

Renewal Letters Versus The Lowest Advertised Rates

Aggregator sites list what lenders advertise without a named borrower. Around October 28, 2026, the big-bank five-year fixed specials were roughly RBC 4.89%, BMO 4.84%, CIBC 4.84%, Scotiabank 4.90% and TD 5.39%, according to canadianrates.ca, with posted rates between 6.09% and 6.49%. The lowest advertised five-year fixed was about 4.34% to 4.59%, mostly insured, with roughly 4.49% at Tangerine on an insured basis. The lowest advertised three-year fixed was about 4.44%.

A renewal letter that matches the big-bank advertised special has told you nothing yet. It means the bank offered you what it shows every visitor. The lower reports on the board, the 4.40% RBC three-year and the 4.24% five-year with no lender named, show that cheaper renewal offers exist, and the RBC one came in a thread about room to negotiate. If your letter is within a few basis points of the advertised special, that is the cue to ask a licensed mortgage broker what the lenders you have not yet heard from would write for your file. You can request cheaper rates and ask specifically for a five-year and a three-year fixed at your insured status.

Your Lender Must Send The Renewal Statement 21 Days Early

Federally regulated lenders must send a renewal statement at least 21 days before the term ends (SOR/2021-181, section 45). That statement is the document with your offered rate, term and payment. Provincially regulated lenders such as credit unions follow provincial rules, which differ. Treat the 21 days as the minimum: it is the last point, not the first, at which you should be comparing.

Comparing before the letter arrives leaves more time. Many lenders let a borrower renew or hold a rate about 120 days early, though the window varies by lender. A reported Scotiabank hold on October 26 was a 3-year fixed at 4.6% for 120 days. If the date you care about is four months out, your own lender and others can already be written against it. For when to start, see the mortgage renewal timing guide instead of repeating it here.

Switching Lenders At Renewal Without A Stress Test

Since November 21, 2024, OSFI no longer requires a minimum qualifying rate test on an uninsured straight switch. A straight switch means the same loan amount, no longer amortization, and a federally regulated lender. Insured mortgages were already exempt. The practical effect: a borrower whose income no longer clears the stress test can still move to a different lender at renewal, as long as nothing in the loan grows. Lenders still underwrite the file under their own B-20 rules, so credit, income and the property still get checked.

It is also worth separating a straight switch from a switch with a change. If you want to borrow more, stretch the amortization or add a co-borrower, the file is no longer a straight switch and the stress test can come back. Provincial credit unions follow provincial rules. Ask any lender to say in writing which category your move falls in.

What A Switch Needs: Documents

A new lender is not inheriting your file, it is writing a new one. Expect to supply most of the following, and expect self-employed borrowers to add more.

An appraisal may or may not be required. Some lenders cover it on a switch, others do not, and a fee here is part of the real cost of any gap you are chasing. Ask whether legal and appraisal costs are paid by the new lender, and whether any discharge fee from the old lender applies.

What The Gap Is Worth In Dollars

Take a $400,000 balance with 20 years left. At the BMO renewal letter rate of 4.79%, the monthly payment is $2,583.34. At 4.44%, the figure posted by a borrower as available at BMO and offered at RBC on October 28, it is $2,508.94. The difference is $74.40 a month. The 4.34% broker quote reported for a three-year fixed would be $2,487.89.

A smaller gap still adds up. Over a 36-month term, the 4.79% letter generates about $4,020 more interest than 4.44% on the same balance, using Canadian semi-annual compounding and month-by-month simulation. Use the mortgage renewal calculator to run your own balance and see how far your payment jumps.

Renewal Rates In Ontario, Alberta And British Columbia

People search for renewal rates by province, and the board has no separate Ontario, Alberta or BC rate list to publish. The two rows that name a place are a TD early renewal quote in Victoria, BC at 4.75% and a CIBC renewal rate being checked in Kitchener, Ontario at 4.49%, and both fall inside the range of the others. What reliably changes with the province is the rulebook around the broker and the credit union. Brokers must be licensed in the province where they work, with FSRA in Ontario, RECA in Alberta, BCFSA in British Columbia and AMF in Quebec, and provincial credit unions follow provincial rules on the renewal statement and on switching. If you are in Alberta, Ontario or BC and want a rate for your own property, the useful question is your insured status and term, not your postal code.

A Plan For The Week You Get The Letter

Three steps cover most cases. First, write down the rate, term, payment and whether the mortgage is insured. Second, compare it with the rows above and with the advertised rates, same term and status. Third, price at least one alternative in writing. If you want it priced against several lenders at once, request cheaper rates and ask a licensed mortgage broker to price a straight switch and a renewal with your current lender side by side, so you can see the gap on paper before the deadline.

Fixed or variable is a separate decision. The fixed or variable guide works through it after the October 28 hike, and the fixed term end blog describes the default renewal path if you do nothing.

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