I would recommend a change as well. TD, Scotia and CIBC are all probably local institutions that would be all aggressive in obtaining your mortgage, and you would still have the "personal touch" of having someone local if you needed to talk face to face. Sometimes when you get a bad taste in your mouth, it's just time to get a change of scenery and see if there is something better.

An Accredited Mortgage Professional (mortgage broker) could shop your mortgage out to all 3 of these places and give you other options outside of the 3 if you didn't need a local institution.

Definitely keep doing your homework like you've been already doing, the more information you learn, the more comfortable you'll become!

Pink,

We deal with every Canadian bank. They all put on a smile when you are a potential client or in good standing.

BNS seems to be the most reasonable at all times.

Thank you for your answers.
If the new laws are "enforcing lenders to disclose all applicable fees " that means that the contract should say in clear what fee and how it is going to be calculated. But what my proposal contrat is saying is exactly the opposite: "We may at any time change a fee or charge a new fee without notice to you" !
I'm in Quebec, maybe this law did not reach here :(, but I am frustated because the first morgage I had with them was correct and now they are trying to cheat...plus the lady (their financial advisor) asked me if I want to sign the contract immediatly after she printed it. That was too pushy for me so I said no, I need 15 days to read it.

Plus I asked them how they compute the penalty because according to the contract I already have (and the existing formula in my contract) I must pay almost half of the amount she told me I have to pay. And she told me that she will come back with more details... I had no sign from her since a week ago.
I will try to meet her this week and clarify those things, but if they don't correct the clause with something more explicit (like you have to pay the fee X which will be calculated like this) I will definitly go to another bank, and I may talk also with the Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Can you recommend me a bank you are happy with ?
Thank you all !

I don't think RBC is in the mood to help anyone but themselves. I know from experience that they don’t care if you’re having a financial crisis or not. I hear people leaving them all the time because they have a sneaky way of conducting business.

a

Discharge fees are usually put into contracts and sometimes I've seen where there isn't a fee attached to them. The banks have changed that and spelled it out.

RBC is not in the mood to lose business (nor have they ever really been)
All lenders are wanting to keep good business so they tell you there will be all these fees attached to discharging a mortgage in order to make it seem like it will costs lots.

If you are up for renewal its a perfect time for you to shop around.

As well, RBC has been charging large penalties lately for people breaking their mortgages. In todays market with interest rates being so low to perhaps higher rates, IRD (interest rate differential) is coming into play more and more. IRD is quite confusing to people but its basically the fact that the bank wants to make up the money they are going to lose on you if you don't keep your mortgage there.

A quick IRD explanation is basically this, using very rough numbers:
If you have 2 years to go on your mortgage at 5.5% and you can get a mortgage today for 2 years at 4.5%, the bank is losing 1%. They then calculate based on the amount of mortgage you have, the amount they are losing, the length of the term and the amortization and out comes a number that they say is the IRD. They then add on discharge fees and sometimes other fees and it grows more.
I had one the other day where it was a 35 months to go on a $260K mortgage and the IRD penalty was $7800 with RBC. The clients were OK with it because they were saving money both on the rate and on the consolidaton of large debts they had but when they got to the lawyers it increased yet again to $8100.
The low interest rate they used in this example of course was a rate then nobody could ever get if you just walked into the bank and asked for the best 3 year rate but that was the number they used.

All I can say is if your mortgage is coming up, start shoping around. If your mortgage is locked in, try and figure out the IRD penalty. If not, ask your current mortgage holder what the penalty would be and then do some comparisons as to what you can get by moving your mortgage to another lender. If you have high credit card debts or other high interest loans it might be worth your while to consolidate it all into one.
Rates are low so shop around.

Victor

If it's a "standard clause" why I did not have it in my previous mortgage contract (3 years ago) ?

It may be only for renewals ? I understand that I have to pay some fees, but I just want them to tell me which kind of fee and how it will be calculated...

Unfortunately, that is a pretty "standard" clause that pretty much all the banks have these days. Basically it's there to confuse you into thinking that you have to pay a bunch of "invented" fees, to help make them profit more.

You are 100% justified in thinking it's not right to pay those fees, and believe it or not, some lending institutions are willing to waive the fees, or even pay another lender's fees in order to gain your business.

If you needed some help negotiating some of those fees away, and maybe even getting a lower rate than what Royal Bank was offering, I'd be happy to help you out!

If I were you I would call invis and the other four major banks and see who gives you the best deal. I don't deal with them but I heard that TD Canada trust is good with mortgages. I think if you ask around people are not happy with rbc when it comes to mortgages.

Thank you