Your mortgage renewal checklist: what to do 120 days out

Your lender mails you a renewal letter with a rate on it. You sign it, mail it back, and the mortgage rolls over for another term. That is what most Canadian homeowners do, and it is almost always the most expensive option on the table.

The renewal letter is not a bill. It is an opening offer — usually the lender's posted-adjacent rate, sent to a client they are betting will not shop around. Here is what to do instead, on a 120-day timeline.

120 days out: pull your own numbers

Before anyone quotes you anything, know these four things about your own file:

• Your current balance and remaining amortization
• Your current rate and exact renewal date
• Your property's rough current value
• Every other debt you carry, with its rate and monthly payment

That last one matters more than people expect. Renewal is the one moment you can restructure without paying a prepayment penalty, which means it is also the cheapest moment to fold high-interest debt into your mortgage if that math works in your favour.

90 days out: get a competing quote

This is the leverage step. A rate quote from another lender does two things: it tells you whether your renewal offer is actually competitive, and it gives you something concrete to take back to your current lender.

Switching lenders at renewal is generally straightforward — the mortgage is maturing, so there is no penalty to break it. Legal and appraisal costs may apply, and many lenders cover them on a switch. Whether the switch is worth it depends on the rate gap and the size of your balance.

60 days out: decide on structure, not just rate

Rate is the number everyone fixates on. Structure is what usually costs or saves more over the term:

• Term length. A shorter term costs more per month but gets you back to the negotiating table sooner if rates fall.
• Fixed or variable. This is a cash-flow risk question, not a prediction question. What matters is whether your budget survives a rate increase.
• Amortization. Extending lowers the payment and raises lifetime interest. Sometimes that trade is right. It should be a decision, not an accident.
• Prepayment privileges. If you intend to pay this down aggressively, the annual prepayment allowance can be worth more than a small rate difference.

30 days out: sign, with the paperwork done

If you are switching lenders, approval, appraisal, and legal work all need to be complete before the maturity date. Leaving it to the final weeks is how people end up accepting the original letter by default — not because it was the best offer, but because the clock ran out.

The part nobody tells you

Your current lender has the least incentive of anyone to offer you their best rate, because they already have your business and they know most clients do not shop. Every competing quote you collect changes that calculation. You do not have to be adversarial about it. You just have to not be automatic.