Personal Finance

HELOC shopping, best rates and waived fees.

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Sr. Member
Sep 9, 2012
623 posts
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Edmonton

HELOC shopping, best rates and waived fees.

Hi guys, just wanted to know if anyone was aware of any current HELOC promotions? I'm in the market to open one and was stonewalled at TD. They currently hold the mortgage on my property but were telling me that I would have to pay $ 400.00 for an appraisal and get my own lawyer to register the HELOC ($ 500.00-800.00)

I was pretty surprised that it was going to cost me about $ 1,000.00 to open a HELOC.
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Deal Expert
Aug 22, 2011
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[quote="imkinger" post_id="23803425" time="1444254186" user_id="568924"]Hi guys, just wanted to know if anyone was aware of any current HELOC promotions? I'm in the market to open one and was stonewalled at TD. They currently hold the mortgage on my property but were telling me that I would have to pay $ 400.00 for an appraisal and get my own lawyer to register the HELOC ($ 500.00

Those "mandatory" fees can be waived...try again.
Deal Fanatic
Feb 15, 2006
9183 posts
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Toronto
imkinger wrote: Hi guys, just wanted to know if anyone was aware of any current HELOC promotions? I'm in the market to open one and was stonewalled at TD. They currently hold the mortgage on my property but were telling me that I would have to pay $ 400.00 for an appraisal and get my own lawyer to register the HELOC ($ 500.00-800.00)

I was pretty surprised that it was going to cost me about $ 1,000.00 to open a HELOC.
You're not shopping for HELOC. You already have the mortgage with TD, sounds like a fixed mortgage, so you are not going elsewhere for HELOC. Your only option is to have TD turn your mortgage into HELOC.

The rate will probably be P+.5 or P+1, depending on what you have with TD. If you bring your property tax bill to show, and they already hold your mortgage, they hopefully won't need to do another appraisal, so you can save on that fee. As for the fee/charges to turn into a HELOC, ask if they can absorb that. Let them know it's in their best interest to keep you as a customer, or else when the mortgage is up for renewal, you can easily take it elsewhere.
Deal Guru
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Feb 2, 2014
11233 posts
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Toronto
imkinger wrote: Hi guys, just wanted to know if anyone was aware of any current HELOC promotions? I'm in the market to open one and was stonewalled at TD. They currently hold the mortgage on my property but were telling me that I would have to pay $ 400.00 for an appraisal and get my own lawyer to register the HELOC ($ 500.00-800.00)

I was pretty surprised that it was going to cost me about $ 1,000.00 to open a HELOC.
You can get a HELOC at Prime +.25%, but you will have to move the mortgage to the new lender as well. You won't get a good rate from any other lenders with TD holding the mortgage.
Kevin Somnauth, CFA
Principal Broker/Owner - First Toronto Mortgage - MA (Ontario #13176, BC #X301007)
Real Estate Salesperson - Century 21 Innovative
Deal Addict
Jul 11, 2008
1791 posts
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Ottawa
assuming one owns their home in full, where can you get a good rate for heloc?
Sr. Member
Sep 9, 2012
623 posts
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Edmonton
Arrgh wrote: You're not shopping for HELOC. You already have the mortgage with TD, sounds like a fixed mortgage, so you are not going elsewhere for HELOC. Your only option is to have TD turn your mortgage into HELOC.

The rate will probably be P+.5 or P+1, depending on what you have with TD. If you bring your property tax bill to show, and they already hold your mortgage, they hopefully won't need to do another appraisal, so you can save on that fee. As for the fee/charges to turn into a HELOC, ask if they can absorb that. Let them know it's in their best interest to keep you as a customer, or else when the mortgage is up for renewal, you can easily take it elsewhere.
I thought you could have a HELOC at a different bank than the one that holds your conventional mortgage.
Deal Fanatic
Feb 15, 2006
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imkinger wrote: I thought you could have a HELOC at a different bank than the one that holds your conventional mortgage.
A HELOC is a mortgage. It is registered against your house -- so that if you cannot pay, they take your house.

Unless you're thinking of doing a 2nd mortgage -- if the first mortgage is only for a small percentage of the house value, and they can register a 2nd mortgage on another percentage of the house. But the 2nd mortgage will require appraisal, lawyer and paperwork, etc. Most financial institutions don't like to do 2nd mortgage, and if they do, they're second in line to the house, and there's no way they'll waive the fees.
Sr. Member
Sep 9, 2012
623 posts
156 upvotes
Edmonton
Arrgh wrote: A HELOC is a mortgage. It is registered against your house -- so that if you cannot pay, they take your house.

Unless you're thinking of doing a 2nd mortgage -- if the first mortgage is only for a small percentage of the house value, and they can register a 2nd mortgage on another percentage of the house. But the 2nd mortgage will require appraisal, lawyer and paperwork, etc. Most financial institutions don't like to do 2nd mortgage, and if they do, they're second in line to the house, and there's no way they'll waive the fees.
According to TD, even though they hold the first and only mortgage on my place (only about 10% of the value of the home), they require an appraisal and told me that I would need to hire my own lawyer to register the Heloc (about $ 1,000.00 for both items). Was I dealing with an incompetent rep?
Deal Fanatic
Feb 15, 2006
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Toronto
imkinger wrote: According to TD, even though they hold the first and only mortgage on my place (only about 10% of the value of the home), they require an appraisal and told me that I would need to hire my own lawyer to register the Heloc (about $ 1,000.00 for both items). Was I dealing with an incompetent rep?
Mortgage for only 10% of the value of the home!?! Are you very close to paying off the mortgage then, or did the home's value shot way up recently? What is the penalty to paying it off early?

What is the amount if you don't mind sharing that. A HELOC can go to about 65% of the value. So if the mortgage is close to being paid off, then you have some bargaining power. You can shop around with other financial institutions, asking if they'll open a HELOC, waiving all fees, when you had paid the current mortgage off.
Sr. Member
Sep 9, 2012
623 posts
156 upvotes
Edmonton
Arrgh wrote: Mortgage for only 10% of the value of the home!?! Are you very close to paying off the mortgage then, or did the home's value shot way up recently? What is the penalty to paying it off early?

What is the amount if you don't mind sharing that. A HELOC can go to about 65% of the value. So if the mortgage is close to being paid off, then you have some bargaining power. You can shop around with other financial institutions, asking if they'll open a HELOC, waiving all fees, when you had paid the current mortgage off.
The amount is less than 50k. I'm not sure what the IRD would be, but it's a 5 year fixed that was opened in 2013.
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Apr 20, 2011
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Vancouver
NB Canada bank's mortgage works like a HELOC and is not limited to 65%.
Deal Fanatic
Feb 15, 2006
9183 posts
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Toronto
Sounds like you can ask TD for a $300,000 - 400,000 HELOC. It can contain that fixed mortgage as part of the HELOC as a fixed portion. The TD rep may be thinking it's a less than $50k mortgage or HELOC and not be bothered. But a $300k HELOC, they should want to have that business and waive the fees. I had that, and other friends, families too.
Deal Fanatic
Jun 29, 2007
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Vancouver
imkinger wrote: The amount is less than 50k. I'm not sure what the IRD would be, but it's a 5 year fixed that was opened in 2013.
You may not be getting good advice from TD rep. I thought TD only does collateral mortgage now, which means they have registered a charge on your property for a higher amount than the initial mortgage amount. One of the main benefits of a collateral mortgage is that you can borrow more money at a later time WITHOUT incurring additional costs (say legal fees).

Appraisal when your current mortgage is only 10% value of your home? If your HELOC isn't at too high loan to property value, you should be able to just show TD the govt property tax assessment value.
Member
Oct 27, 2009
318 posts
64 upvotes
Few months ago I was able to convert my TD mortgage to TD HELOC, P + 0.5%, legal fees waived, appraisal fee reduced from 300$ to 99$

I was shopping around, the best offer I got was P+0.25%, but I would have to pay legal fees and that would kill the deal, since I'm not really borrowing that much from HELOC to compensate this little rate difference

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