Debt consolidation mortgage: rolling credit card debt into your home, honestly
You are not bad with money. You are paying 22.99% on balances your house could carry at 4.29%, and the minimum payments are designed to keep you exactly where you are.
Roll unsecured debt into your mortgage up to 80% of your home's value
Above 80% or failing the stress test? Second-mortgage options, priced with fees included
We show the total interest cost over the full amortization, not just the monthly saving
Six questions. A licensed broker reviews it and comes back with real numbers — not a rate teaser.
Placed with Canada's banks, monolines, credit unions and alternative lenders
TD BankScotiabankRBC Royal BankCIBCBMONational BankMCAPFirst NationalMerix FinancialHome TrustEquitable BankCMLS FinancialRFA MortgageCommunity TrustHaventree BankRadius FinancialB2B BankManulife BankServus Credit UnionMeridian Credit UnionFisgard CapitalCWB OptimumDesjardinsVancityCoast Capital SavingsAlterna SavingsBridgewater BankHomeEquity BankWealth One Bank of CanadaCanadian Western BankTangerineICICI Bank CanadaMarathon Mortgage
Lender names shown for reference. Availability, pricing and guidelines vary by province, property and borrower profile.
A debt consolidation mortgage uses the equity in your home to pay off higher-interest debt — credit cards, lines of credit, car loans, tax arrears — and rolls the balances into one mortgage payment at a mortgage rate. It is not debt forgiveness and it is not a fresh start. It is a rate arbitrage: taking money you owe at 22.99% and owing it at 4.29% instead.
The arithmetic is usually overwhelming. $78,000 of unsecured debt at typical Canadian rates generates about $12,781 a year in interest alone. The same $78,000 inside a mortgage at 4.29% generates roughly $3,300 in the first year. Nothing about your income or your spending has to change for that gap to appear.
The part most pages leave out is the cost. Rolling five-year debt into a twenty-five-year amortization means paying interest on it for twenty-five years, and $78,000 at 4.29% over 25 years costs $48,795 in interest even at that low rate. That trade is often worth making. It should still be a decision you make with the number in front of you, which is why it appears on this page rather than in the fine print.
Signs it is time to consolidate debt into your mortgage
Debt problems rarely arrive as a crisis. They arrive as a slow narrowing of choices.
The balances have not moved in a year
You make every payment on time and the statements look the same each month. Minimum payments on revolving credit are calculated to cover interest and almost nothing else — that is the product working as designed, not you failing at it.
Your credit limit got cut without warning
Equifax reported lenders trimming limits by 15% to 20% for higher-risk consumers in early 2026, with new card originations at a four-year low. A cut limit raises your utilization overnight and drops your score without you spending a dollar.
You are using one card to make the payment on another
Cash advances or balance transfers to cover minimums is the point where the maths has stopped working. Every month it continues costs roughly 2% of the balance in interest alone.
The CRA has started calling
Tax arrears carry interest, and the CRA can register a lien against your property or garnish income. Most A lenders will not refinance while arrears are outstanding — they have to be cleared at closing, which is exactly what a consolidation can do.
You are behind on the mortgage itself
Missed mortgage payments start a clock. In Ontario, power of sale can move quickly once a lender issues notice. Arrears are solvable while there is still equity, and the window is measured in weeks.
You have stopped opening the mail
This is the most common symptom and the one people are most embarrassed by. It is not a character flaw. It is what happens when the monthly numbers stop reconciling and there is no obvious lever left to pull.
What is a debt consolidation mortgage, and how does it work?
A debt consolidation mortgage is a refinance of your existing mortgage for a larger amount, where the extra money goes directly to your creditors rather than to you. The lawyer handling the closing pays each creditor from the mortgage advance and provides confirmation. You end up with one secured payment instead of a mortgage plus a stack of unsecured minimums.
It is underwritten as a refinance, not a renewal. That means an appraisal, an 80% loan-to-value ceiling, closing costs, qualification at the stress-test rate, and a prepayment penalty if you break your existing term mid-way. The one exception worth planning around: if your mortgage is maturing, there is no penalty, which makes renewal the cheapest moment in the five-year cycle to restructure.
There are three routes to the same outcome, and which one you use depends on your loan-to-value and whether you can pass the stress test. A refinance of the first mortgage is cheapest. A second mortgage behind the existing first is faster and costs more. An alternative or B-lender first mortgage sits between them.
Three routes to a debt consolidation, at 2026 pricing
Three routes to a debt consolidation, at 2026 pricing
Route
Typical rate
Max loan-to-value
Stress test
Setup cost
Speed
Refinance with an A lender
4.09%–4.29%
80%
Yes — contract rate + 2%
$1,800–$3,000
2–4 weeks
B-lender or credit union first mortgage
Roughly 1.0–2.0% above A rates
80%
Own rules; broader income
Above, plus ~1% lender fee
1–3 weeks
Private second mortgage
Roughly 10%–15%, interest-only
About 75–85% combined
No — not federally regulated
2–5% fee plus legal
3–10 business days
The money never touches your hands. On a consolidation the lawyer pays your creditors directly from the advance and provides proof to the lender. That is a condition of most approvals, and it is also the mechanism that makes the plan actually work.
How much debt can I roll into my mortgage?
As much as fits under 80% of your home's appraised value, after your existing mortgage and closing costs. The formula: appraised value × 0.80, minus your current mortgage balance, minus any other registered charge, minus roughly $2,500 of costs. Whatever is left is the maximum debt you can consolidate through a conventional refinance.
That ceiling is federal and it does not bend for a good story, a strong income or a perfect payment history. It is the single most common reason a consolidation plan fails, and it is knowable in about ten minutes — which is why we calculate it before anything is ordered or any credit is pulled.
If the number that comes out is smaller than your debt, you have not run out of options; you have moved to a different tier. A private second mortgage can take combined loan-to-value to roughly 85%, at a materially higher cost. And sometimes the honest answer is that the equity is not there and consolidation is not the right tool at all — a conversation covered further down this page.
Consolidation room on a $650,000 home
Consolidation room on a $650,000 home
Existing mortgage
Maximum at 80% ($520,000)
Room before costs
Debt you can clear after ~$2,500 costs
$300,000
$520,000
$220,000
$217,500
$390,000
$520,000
$130,000
$127,500
$450,000
$520,000
$70,000
$67,500
$495,000
$520,000
$25,000
$22,500
$530,000
$520,000
None — already above 80%
$0 conventionally; second mortgage only
What does consolidating actually save? The real numbers
The saving comes from two places at once, and people usually only count the first. The obvious one is the interest rate. The less obvious one is that unsecured minimum payments are front-loaded and brutal: 3% of a card balance every month, 3% of a line of credit, plus a car loan on a three- or five-year schedule. Replacing all of that with a 25-year amortization changes the monthly number far more than the rate change alone would suggest.
A worked example. $38,000 of card debt at 22.99%, a $19,000 line of credit at 11.45% and a $21,000 car loan at 8.90% with three years to run generate $2,178 a month in minimum payments and about $12,781 a year in interest. Rolled into a mortgage at 4.29% on a 25-year amortization, that same $78,000 adds $423 a month to the mortgage payment and costs about $3,300 in first-year interest.
That is a real, large, immediate improvement to a household budget. It is also, in part, borrowed from the future — which is the subject of the next section, and the reason we put both numbers in front of every client before anything is signed.
Typical Canadian debt costs versus mortgage rates, August 2026
Typical Canadian debt costs versus mortgage rates, August 2026
Debt type
Typical rate
Interest on $25,000 per year
Typical minimum payment
Retail or store card
28.99%
$7,248
3% of balance
Standard credit card
22.99%
$5,748
3% of balance
Low-rate credit card
12.99%
$3,248
3% of balance
Unsecured line of credit
11.45%
$2,863
Interest plus 1%
Car loan
8.90%
$2,225
Fixed, 3–7 year term
Mortgage, 5-yr fixed uninsured
4.29%
$1,073
Amortizing, 25–30 years
Interest is the number to watch, not the payment. A payment can be lowered by stretching time. Interest saved is money that stops leaving your household entirely. Judge any consolidation offer on both.
The amortization trap: what consolidation really costs over time
Rolling a five-year debt into a twenty-five-year mortgage means you will pay interest on it for twenty-five years. At 4.29%, $78,000 amortized over 25 years costs $48,795 in interest — considerably more than the same balance would have cost you over five years at a higher rate, if you could actually have cleared it in five years.
That last clause is the whole argument. Most people carrying $78,000 of revolving debt at 22.99% are not on track to clear it in five years; they are on track to carry it indefinitely while paying $12,781 a year for the privilege. Compared to that, $48,795 over 25 years is an enormous improvement. Compared to a disciplined five-year payoff plan that you would actually complete, it is not.
There is a straightforward way to get most of the benefit and little of the cost: keep paying the old amount. If consolidating frees up $2,092 a month, directing even half of that at the mortgage through prepayment privileges — most lenders allow 15% to 20% of the original principal per year, plus a payment increase of the same order — collapses the amortization dramatically. The freed-up cash flow is the point. Spending all of it is how consolidation becomes a habit rather than a fix.
Ask for the total interest figure over the full amortization, in writing, before you sign
Use your annual lump-sum prepayment privilege on the consolidated portion, not on the original mortgage balance
Increase the regular payment rather than banking the whole monthly saving — most lenders allow this once a year at no cost
Close or reduce the cleared credit lines, or agree with yourself in advance what they are for
Set a target date to have the consolidated portion cleared, and diarize it
Does debt consolidation hurt your credit score?
Usually it helps, after a short dip. The dip comes from two things: the hard credit inquiry when you apply, and the new mortgage account appearing with a large balance. Both are minor and both fade within a few months.
The improvement comes from credit utilization — how much of your available revolving credit you are using — which is one of the heaviest inputs in the scoring models used by Equifax and TransUnion Canada. Someone carrying $38,000 against $42,000 of card limits is at roughly 90% utilization, which suppresses a score hard. Paying those balances to zero at closing takes utilization to 0% and the effect typically shows within one or two reporting cycles.
What undoes it is predictable: running the balances back up. The accounts are still open, the limits are still there, and the mortgage payment is now higher than it was. A consolidation that gets re-borrowed is the one genuinely bad outcome in this product, and it is worth deciding in advance — before closing, not after — whether the cards stay open for emergencies, get reduced, or get closed.
Months 0–2: the dip
A hard inquiry and a new mortgage tradeline appear. Expect a modest decline. Nothing here is durable, and lenders assessing you in this window can see the context on the file.
Months 2–6: the utilization effect
Cleared revolving balances report at or near zero. This is where most of the recovery happens, and for people who were near their limits it can be substantial. Keep every payment on the new mortgage on time — payment history is the other heavy input.
Months 6–24: rebuilding to A-lender territory
If you consolidated through a B or private lender, this is the window that gets you back to A pricing. Clean payment history, low utilization and stable income are what an A lender wants to see at renewal, and 24 months of it is usually enough.
What if I am above 80% LTV or cannot pass the stress test?
Two different problems with the same set of answers. If your existing mortgage plus the debt exceeds 80% of your home's value, a conventional refinance simply cannot reach. If you have the room but your debt service ratios fail at the qualifying rate — the greater of contract rate plus 2% or 5.25%, which today means about 6.29% at A pricing — the file will decline for a different reason.
The first stop is the alternative-lending market. B-lenders and credit unions refinance to 80% with broader income documentation and lower credit thresholds, typically 1.0% to 2.0% above A rates plus a lender fee of around 1%. Credit unions are provincially regulated and set their own qualifying rules, which sometimes solves a stress-test problem outright.
Beyond that, a private second mortgage sits behind your existing first and can push combined loan-to-value to roughly 85%. Pricing runs about 10% to 15% interest-only with a lender fee of 2% to 5%, and private lenders are not bound by the federal stress test because they are not federally regulated. The number that matters on a private second is not the rate — it is the effective annual cost once the lender fee, broker fee and legal costs come off the advance, which on a one-year term commonly adds three to five percentage points. Any brokerage that quotes you the rate without that figure is not showing you the price.
B-lender first mortgage: roughly 1.0–2.0% above A rates plus a ~1% fee, to 80% LTV
Credit union: provincially regulated, own qualifying rules, competitive pricing
Private second mortgage: roughly 10–15% interest-only, 2–5% fee, to about 85% combined LTV
Every alternative placement should come with a written exit: what has to be true, and by when, to refinance back to A pricing
Ask for the effective annual cost, in writing. A $108,000 private second at 11.5% with a 2% lender fee, 1% broker fee and $2,900 of legal costs nets $101,860 and costs $18,560 in year one — an effective cost of about 18.2%, not 11.5%.
CRA tax arrears, property tax arrears and mortgage arrears
Tax debt is different from consumer debt and it needs to be handled first. The Canada Revenue Agency can register a lien against your property, garnish wages and freeze bank accounts, and it does not need a court judgment to do any of it. Most A lenders will not fund a refinance while tax arrears are outstanding — the arrears must be paid in full at closing, from the advance, with confirmation.
That makes a consolidation one of the cleaner ways out of tax arrears, and it is a route very few competitors even mention. The same applies to municipal property tax arrears, which sit ahead of your mortgage in priority and will eventually trigger a tax sale if left long enough. Lenders take them seriously for exactly that reason and will insist they be cleared.
Mortgage arrears are the most time-sensitive category. In Ontario a lender can proceed by power of sale after issuing notice, and the timeline moves faster than most homeowners expect. If there is equity in the property, arrears are almost always solvable — a private first or second mortgage can bring the account current within a week or two, and the refinance to normalize everything happens afterwards. What removes options is waiting. The best time to make the call is the week you realize you cannot make the payment, not the month after the notice arrives.
CRA arrears: must be cleared at closing on virtually every refinance — and can be, from the advance
Property tax arrears: rank ahead of your mortgage in priority; lenders require them paid
Mortgage arrears: solvable while equity remains; timelines are provincial and short
Judgments or writs registered on title: must be identified early, as they affect what can be registered and when
Debt consolidation, consumer proposal, or bankruptcy?
Sometimes borrowing is not the answer, and you deserve to hear that from someone who does not get paid for the alternative. Consumer insolvencies in Canada reached 143,353 in the twelve months to March 2026, the highest level since 2009, and consumer proposals made up 78.5% of those filings. Equifax found that mortgage holders who filed carried an average of $82,400 in non-mortgage debt — up 19% in two years.
A debt consolidation mortgage makes sense when you have enough equity to clear the debt under 80% loan-to-value, income that services the new payment, and a reason the debt accumulated that has stopped applying. It makes poor sense when the equity does not cover the debt, when the income cannot carry the consolidated payment, or when the underlying spending is unresolved — in that case it converts unsecured debt into debt secured by your home, which is a meaningfully worse position to be in.
A consumer proposal is a legal arrangement filed through a Licensed Insolvency Trustee to repay a portion of what you owe, and it is the right tool for some households. It is also a serious credit event that generally makes mortgage financing difficult until it is completed and for some time afterwards. We are not licensed to give insolvency advice, and we will say so and point you to a trustee for a free consultation when that is what the numbers indicate. Getting a mortgage placed is not worth putting someone in a worse position.
Which tool fits which situation
Which tool fits which situation
Situation
Usually the right tool
Equity covers the debt under 80% LTV, income services the new payment
Debt consolidation refinance
Equity is there but income or credit fails A-lender tests
B-lender refinance or private second mortgage, with an exit plan
Debt exceeds available equity, income is stable
Speak to a Licensed Insolvency Trustee before borrowing further
Debt exceeds equity and income has collapsed
Licensed Insolvency Trustee — a proposal or bankruptcy assessment
Debt is modest and the issue is rate, not amount
Balance transfer, a lower-rate line of credit, or a HELOC
How Lendmax approaches a debt consolidation
The first question is not which lender. It is whether consolidating is the right move at all, and that is answered by two numbers: how much room exists under 80% of your home's value, and what the consolidated payment does to your debt service ratios at the qualifying rate. Both can be established before any credit is pulled or any fee is paid.
We use an automated valuation model to bracket your property value and calculate the ceiling, an AI-assisted read of your credit file to establish which lender tier will actually approve you and what the utilization picture looks like, and a comparison of live offers across 30+ lenders including alternative and private. Every quote we present includes the total interest cost over the full amortization and, on any private placement, the effective annual cost with fees included. Documents are signed digitally.
List every debt, including the ones you would rather not — Balance, rate, minimum payment and limit for each card, line, loan, tax arrear and support obligation. Missing debts do not disappear at underwriting — they surface on the credit report and cost you the approval.
Calculate the 80% ceiling before anything else — If the room is not there for a conventional refinance, you find out on the first call rather than after an appraisal fee. That determines which of the three routes is even in play.
Present both numbers, always — The monthly saving and the total interest cost over the full amortization. If the trade does not look good to you with both numbers visible, it is not a deal we should be doing.
Fund the payouts directly and plan the exit — The lawyer pays each creditor from the advance with confirmation to the lender. On B and private placements we set the target date and conditions for the refinance back to A pricing, and diarize the file to start that conversation 150 days ahead.
This page covers: debt consolidation mortgage, consolidate debt into mortgage, refinance to pay off credit card debt, debt consolidation loan Canada, debt consolidation mortgage bad credit, how much debt can I roll into my mortgage, second mortgage for debt consolidation, home equity loan to consolidate debt, does debt consolidation hurt your credit score, debt consolidation vs consumer proposal, CRA tax arrears mortgage, property tax arrears loan, mortgage arrears Ontario.
Case scenarios
Four situations, four sets of numbers
Four situations we see every week, with the numbers before and after. Names and figures are illustrative composites built from typical files — your own numbers will differ.
K
Kayla
Windsor, ON
$78,000 of debt costing $12,781 a year in interest alone
Kayla and her partner were current on everything and getting nowhere: $38,000 across three cards at 22.99%, a $19,000 line of credit at 11.45%, and $21,000 left on a car loan at 8.90%. Minimum payments came to $2,178 a month on top of a $1,807 mortgage payment. Her home appraised at $465,000 with a $268,000 balance at 4.94%, maturing in seven weeks.
Before
Mortgage balance and rate
$268,000 at 4.94%
Unsecured debt
$78,000 (cards, line of credit, car loan)
Loan-to-value
57.6%
Total monthly obligations
$3,985
Annual interest on unsecured debt
$12,781
After Lendmax
Mortgage balance and rate
$349,400 at 4.29%
Unsecured debt
$0
Loan-to-value
75.1%
Total monthly obligations
$1,893
Annual interest on unsecured debt
$0
Because the mortgage was maturing there was no prepayment penalty, which is why we timed it to the maturity date rather than doing it in March when she first called. The new mortgage of $349,400 included $78,000 of debt and $3,400 of costs, landing at 75.1% loan-to-value — inside the 80% ceiling. It had to qualify at 6.29%, testing a payment of $2,296 against household income of $104,000, and it passed largely because the unsecured minimums came off the ratio calculation. We were direct about the other side: the $78,000 will cost $48,795 in interest over 25 years, so she set the regular payment $600 above the required amount to shorten it.
$2,092/month freed up — $25,103 a year
J
Jaspreet
Edmonton, AB
CRA arrears of $47,000 and no A lender would touch the file
Jaspreet runs a two-truck hauling business. Two rough years left $47,000 owing to the CRA plus $23,000 on credit cards at 21.99%, and the CRA had begun collection contact. His home valued at $610,000 with a $341,000 first mortgage at 4.59%. Three banks declined: outstanding tax arrears plus self-employed income that had dipped on paper.
Before
Mortgage balance and rate
$341,000 at 4.59%
CRA arrears
$47,000
Credit card debt
$23,000 at 21.99%
Loan-to-value
55.9%
Total monthly obligations
$4,156
After Lendmax
Mortgage balance and rate
$418,310 at 5.89% (B-lender, 2-yr term)
CRA arrears
$0 — paid in full at closing
Credit card debt
$0
Loan-to-value
68.6%
Total monthly obligations
$2,460
We placed this with an alternative lender that underwrites business-for-self income from 12 months of business bank statements and corporate financials rather than personal tax returns alone. The new mortgage of $418,310 covered the $70,000 of debt, a 1% lender fee of $4,110 and $3,200 of legal and appraisal costs, on a 30-year amortization. The 5.89% rate is genuinely expensive against A pricing and we said so — the two-year term exists to create an exit. Two years of clean payments and current filings should return him to A rates, and the file is diarized for 150 days before maturity.
$1,696/month freed up — $20,357 a year, and the CRA file is closed
C
Chantal
Halifax, NS
The equity covered half the debt, so we consolidated half
Chantal was carrying $61,000 of unsecured debt: $31,000 on two cards at 22.99%, an $18,000 line of credit at 12.45%, and $12,000 left on a car. Her home appraised at $410,000 with a $291,000 mortgage at 4.74%. At 80% loan-to-value the ceiling was $328,000, which left $37,000 of room — enough for the cards, not for everything.
Before
Mortgage balance and rate
$291,000 at 4.74%
Credit card debt at 22.99%
$31,000
Other unsecured debt
$30,000 (line of credit and car loan)
Loan-to-value
71.0%
Total monthly obligations
$3,455
After Lendmax
Mortgage balance and rate
$325,500 at 4.29%
Credit card debt at 22.99%
$0
Other unsecured debt
$30,000 (line of credit and car loan)
Loan-to-value
79.4%
Total monthly obligations
$2,471
We cleared the highest-rate debt first because that is where the arithmetic is strongest, and stopped at $325,500 — 79.4% loan-to-value, just inside the ceiling. What we did not do is pretend the remaining $30,000 had been solved. Chantal left with the line of credit and car loan intact, an agreement to direct $600 of the freed-up cash flow at the line of credit, and a projection showing it cleared in under four years. Consolidating the remainder would have meant a private second mortgage at three times the rate, and on these numbers it was not worth it.
$984/month freed up — $11,811 a year, with $30,000 still owing and a plan for it
D
Devon
Langley, BC
$96,000 of debt, only $78,000 of room, and the stress test said no
Devon's home appraised at $845,000 with a $598,000 first mortgage at 4.19% and 17 years of amortization remaining — a $4,092 monthly payment. Against that sat $54,000 of card debt at 22.99%, a $22,000 line of credit at 13.45% and $20,000 of other obligations. A refinance to 80% would have released $78,000, which was not enough, and the resulting file would have had to qualify at 6.29% on a $4,442 payment. It failed.
Before
First mortgage
$598,000 at 4.19%
Second charge
None
Unsecured debt
$96,000
Combined loan-to-value
70.8%
Total monthly obligations
$6,679
After Lendmax
First mortgage
$598,000 at 4.19% — untouched
Second charge
$108,000 at 11.50%, interest-only, 1-year term
Unsecured debt
$0
Combined loan-to-value
83.6%
Total monthly obligations
$5,127
A private second charge was the only structure that reached, because private lenders are not subject to the federal stress test and can exceed 80% combined loan-to-value. We priced it plainly: $108,000 registered, a 2% lender fee, a 1% broker fee and $2,900 of legal costs left a net advance of $101,860, and the first year costs $12,420 of interest plus $6,140 of fees — an effective annual cost of about 18.2%, not the 11.50% headline. It is still less than the 22.99% he was paying with no principal moving. The one-year term is deliberate: with the cards at zero and twelve months of clean payments, the plan is to refinance both charges into one B-lender first at renewal.
$1,552/month freed up — $18,619 a year, at an effective first-year cost of 18.2%
Scenarios are illustrative composites for the purpose of showing how a solution is structured. They are not testimonials and do not represent specific clients. Figures assume Canadian semi-annual compounding and are rounded. Your rate, approval and savings depend on your credit, income, property and lender.
The brokerage advantage
Why a brokerage beats a single lender
Access to nationwide lenders
A single bank can only offer you the one product it sells. We are licensed across Canada and place files with dozens of lenders — chartered banks, monolines, credit unions, trust companies, alternative lenders and private capital. When one lender says no, that is the start of the conversation, not the end of it.
Specialized programs most borrowers never see
Stated-income and bank-statement programs for the self-employed, newcomer programs that accept international credit, rental-offset policies that make investment properties work, purchase-plus-improvements, extended amortizations, equity-only lending. These are real programs with real guidelines — they are simply not advertised at a branch counter.
Flexibility on how your file is structured
The same borrower can be an approval or a decline depending on which lender sees the file and how the income, debts and property are presented. We know which lender counts child support as income, which one will use a 30-year amortization, and which one will look past a bruised credit year.
Volume leverage on pricing
Lenders price for the brokerages that send them consistent, well-packaged, low-default business. That leverage is why a broker-sourced rate is frequently better than the posted rate — and why an exception request from us gets answered.
Experience with the file that is not straightforward
Power of sale timelines, tax arrears, CRA liens, separation agreements, business-for-self write-offs, construction draws, private-to-A exit plans. The complicated files are the ones where a broker earns their fee — and the ones we handle every week.
One advocate, start to finish
You are not re-explaining your situation to a new person at every stage. One licensed broker owns your file from the first call through to funding, and stays with you through renewal so the plan actually gets executed.
How it works
Our four-step process
1
Understanding the situation
We start with a real conversation, not a form. What is the payment doing to your month? What is the deadline? What has already been declined and why? Everything after this depends on getting this part right.
2
Finding a solution
Your file is matched against our full lender panel — banks, monolines, credit unions, alternative lenders and private capital — and structured to fit the guideline it will actually be approved under, the first time.
3
Negotiating rates
We do not accept the first number. Volume and lender relationships get your file priced as an exception, not as a walk-in. Then we compare the true cost — rate, penalty, prepayment terms and fees — side by side.
4
Stress-free closing
Documents are signed digitally, conditions are cleared by our team, and your lawyer is briefed before funding day. You get one point of contact from approval to keys, and a plan for what happens next.
Reviews
What clients say after closing
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Call to discuss your file
Every file is different. Fifteen minutes on the phone with a licensed broker will tell you more than an hour of reading. No cost, no obligation, no pressure.
As much as fits under 80% of your home's appraised value, after your existing mortgage and about $2,500 of closing costs. On a $650,000 home with a $390,000 mortgage, the ceiling is $520,000, leaving roughly $127,500 of debt you can clear. Above that, a conventional refinance cannot reach and the remaining route is a private second mortgage to roughly 85% combined loan-to-value.
There is usually a short dip from the hard inquiry and the new mortgage tradeline, followed by a meaningful improvement. Clearing revolving balances takes your credit utilization toward zero, and utilization is one of the heaviest inputs in Canadian scoring models — someone at 90% of their card limits typically sees a substantial recovery within one or two reporting cycles. What undoes it is running the balances back up.
You may qualify, at a different price. B-lenders and credit unions refinance to 80% loan-to-value with lower credit thresholds, typically 1.0% to 2.0% above A rates plus a lender fee of around 1%. Private lenders will register a second charge at roughly 10% to 15% interest-only with a 2% to 5% fee and are not bound by the federal stress test. All of it is subject to lender approval and to the equity available in the property.
Yes, and in most cases you have to. The CRA can register a lien against your property, and virtually every lender requires outstanding tax arrears to be paid in full at closing from the mortgage advance, with confirmation. Many A lenders will decline a file with active arrears altogether, which is why these deals often go to alternative lenders. Municipal property tax arrears are treated the same way — they rank ahead of your mortgage in priority.
It is a good idea when you have enough equity under 80% loan-to-value, income that services the new payment, and a reason the debt accumulated that has stopped applying. It is a poor idea when the spending is unresolved, because it converts unsecured debt into debt secured by your home. Ask for the total interest cost over the full amortization alongside the monthly saving — $78,000 at 4.29% over 25 years costs $48,795 in interest, and you should see that number before you decide.
They solve different problems. A consolidation is borrowing: it lowers the rate and the payment but you still repay the full amount. A consumer proposal is a legal arrangement filed through a Licensed Insolvency Trustee to repay a portion of what you owe. If your equity covers the debt under 80% loan-to-value and your income services the new payment, consolidation is usually cheaper and does far less credit damage. If it does not, speak to a trustee before borrowing further — we are not licensed to give insolvency advice and will refer you.
Two to four weeks with an A lender, one to three weeks with a B-lender or credit union, and three to ten business days for a private second mortgage. What stretches the timeline is the appraisal, income verification for self-employed borrowers, and obtaining payout statements from each creditor. If a deadline is driving the file — arrears, a lien, a maturing charge — say so at the first call, because it changes which lenders we approach.
Not automatically. Paying a card to zero does not close it, and the limit remains available. Some lenders make closing or reducing specific accounts a condition of approval, particularly where the debt service calculation depends on it. Where it is not a condition, it is worth deciding deliberately before closing rather than after — a consolidation that gets re-borrowed is the one outcome in this product that leaves you worse off than when you started.