My Mortgage Renewal – Part 2

Earlier this week I posted the first part of this process, which was going through the original plan and seeing what I did or didn’t actually complete.  I was pleasantly surprised by the results.  I actually did do most of the list!

But, that post didn’t cover any of the specific details of our renewal, so I promised I would share that in another post.  So let’s get to it.

First up, let’s do a little background.  My husband and I bought our house in the December of 2013.  We bought it the first day on the market and though we paid slightly over asking price, we asked for a long closing time because we had to sell my townhouse and I still think we got a great deal.  So we moved in to the house in March of 2014.

The house itself was pretty clean, well maintained and livable, but definitely not updated.  We had big dreams of renovations, but had to wait a while before we could fund anything major.  But even without any updates to the house, the market has done what the market has done, and the value of the house has increased substantially.

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My Mortgage Renewal – Part 1

As I’ve mentioned since the beginning of the year, our mortgage was up for renewal November 1st.  Well that date has come and gone, so you might be wondering what happened?

Way back in February I put together a plan of 17 steps to follow in preparation of everything that I thought we’d need and want to do before the renewal.  We didn’t exactly follow the plan, but we did do quite a bit…

1. Discuss the plan with my husband.
   I’m not totally sure that I actually shared the full plan with him at any point, but we did discuss all the things we wanted to do as preparation for the renewal.  So… Done!
2. Research Bank Accounts.
   I did do some research for bank accounts, and posted about it… so… Done!
3. Ask Current Bank About Cancellation Fees.
   Yeah, I never really did that… And it didn’t really matter because we waited until the end to get our new mortgage, so we didn’t need to worry about the cancellation fees… Not Done, but OK.
4. Ask Current Bank About Property Tax Account
   I asked my current bank and they informed me that whatever cash is left in that fund would be rolled in to the payout amount, and that my new mortgage would have to start from scratch if we choose to go with the same set up.  So… Done!
5. Research Advertised Mortgage Rates at Some of the Major Banks
   Thanks to Jordann at My Alternate Life, I learned about RateHub.ca and did quite a bit of research through them to figure out what the going rates were.  Another one Done!
6. Visit 2-3 Banks/Brokers to Discuss Options for Mortgages

Simplifying My Banking… Or Maybe Not…

As part of my goal #6 for 2016, I planned to do some research on bank accounts to streamline and hopefully simplify some of our finances… Part of the goal is to leave my bank completely once the mortgage is moved… And well, I did some research, but I don’t think I’m going to actually be successful in simplifying our accounts – which I’ll discuss a little later on…

Random Rant: Bank Fees

I hate paying bank fees. I understand that banks need to make money, and I have benefited through investments when certain banks to make money, but do they really have to charge me for storing my money in their institution? I don’t see why I should pay $12/month for a chequing account that never goes in to the negative, if I happen to not keep the required $2500 balance every day of the month…

If I can take that $2500 and make over 6.25% on it, that would make the bank fees come out in the wash (someone may want to check my math on that one…), but if I keep $2500 in the chequing account, that money is doing nothing for me. Sure, my net worth is $2500 higher than if that was $0, but that $2500 of net worth is not working for me. And I want my money to work for me… not just make money for a bank…