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RBC Royal Bank Mortgage Rates
Navigating the mortgage landscape can be complex, but with the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), you have access to a variety of mortgage options designed to suit your financial goals. Whether you’re a first-time homebuyer or looking to refinance, understanding RBC’s mortgage rates is crucial to making informed decisions.
We compare mortgage rates from top lenders in Canada, including BMO mortgage rates, CIBC mortgage rates, RBC mortgage rates, TD Bank Mortgage Rates, and MCAP mortgage rates, and Citadel Mortgages rates called the Citadel Smart Home Plan mortgage rates. Let us simplify the process and help you secure approval quickly!
RBC mortgage rates Canada overview
RBC is one of Canada’s largest banks and has a robust offering of mortgage products, with competitive rates among the big banks. As with any mortgage, we strongly recommend comparing mortgage rates from multiple lenders and talking with a mortgage broker before deciding on a mortgage lender.
Let’s see if an RBC mortgage is right for you; read this article to learn about their product and features.
RBC Fixed-Rate Mortgages
RBC Fixed Rate Mortgage product reduces the risk of future interest rate fluctuations by “locking in” a specific interest rate for the term. This can create peace of mind for most homeowners, making it an appealing mortgage product for most home buyers; if your thinking of or arranging a new mortgage for a future or your current home, your fixed interest rate mortgage can be guaranteed up to 120 days.
Before your home’s closing date. If the interest rates go up during that time, you will be guaranteed a lower rate.
Current RBC Mortgage Rates
RBC offers a range of mortgage products with competitive rates:
- Fixed-Rate Mortgages: Lock in your interest rate and monthly payments for the entire term, providing stability and predictability.
- Variable-Rate Mortgages: Benefit from interest rates that may fluctuate with the market, potentially offering savings over time.
- Open and Closed Terms: Choose between flexible open mortgages, which allow for prepayments without penalties, and closed mortgages, which typically offer lower interest rates but with some restrictions on prepayments.
RBC Variable-Rate Mortgages
The RBC Royal Bank Variable Rate Mortgages provides you with fixed payments over the term of your mortgage; keep in mind, the interest rate will fluctuate with any changes in the bank of Canada prime interest rate. If the bank of Canada prime rate goes down, more of your payment will go towards paying off your principal; while if the bank of Canada prime rate goes up, more of your payment will go towards your mortgage’s interest costs. This is a great financial tool for people expecting rates to fall or take advantage of current low mortgage rates.
Most times, the RBC variable mortgage is a convertible mortgage that allows you to convert to another term, such as a fixed mortgage at any time. This feature provides you with flexibility and security, as it enables you to convert to a longer closed term should your variable rate mortgage no longer meet your needs.
RBC Mortgage Products
The standard fixed and variable rate mortgage products are staples for RBC, but the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) offers various specialty mortgage products. These products consist of the RateCapper Mortgage, the EnergySaver Mortgage, the RBC Homeline Plan, a Self-Employed Mortgage product, and a Cash Back Mortgage, all outlined below in detail.
The RateCapper Mortgage: This is a variable RBC mortgage rate with a maximum “capped” rate for a five-year term. This protects you from rate increases if current mortgage rates go up beyond the max “capped” rate, and if the mortgage rates go down, your rate goes down just as it would with a standard variable RBC mortgage rate and your payments.
RBC homeline plan – RBC (HELOC) home equity line of credit
RBC offers its flexible RBC Homeline Plan, which is a re-advanceable (HELOC) home equity line of credit that allows you to borrow against your equity built up in your home. Its most prominent feature is the readvancing credit line. As you pay off the mortgage principal, you can immediately re-borrow the home credit line feature’s funds.
There, of course, are certain restrictions for qualifying for RBC’s Homeline Plan. First, of course, you will need strong credit and a minimum of 20% equity in your home. You can then borrow up to a max of 65% of your home’s appraised value in a revolving line of credit (HELOC). The other 15% can be in the form of a regular traditional mortgage. The HELOC and mortgage portions can be any size as long as you qualify for the mortgage product.
The RBC Homeline is a collateral charge mortgage, meaning you can borrow more without visiting a lawyer. One keynote is, this can potentially cost you more if you change lenders in the future.
All RBC clients have convenient online and ATM access to their Royal Credit Line and RBC mortgage all in one place. The RBC Homeline can be accessed easily and quickly for various uses, including being used as an emergency fund or use from everything from renovations, vehicle purchases, tuition fees for a family member, and even investment options.
The Energy Saver Mortgage: This is a mortgage solution with a rebate to help you reduce your home energy costs. It provides a $300 rebate on a home energy audit, and you have the choice of the typical residential mortgage or the RBC Homeline Plan that RBC offers its clients.
RBC Cash Back Mortgage provides cashback at the time your mortgage is advanced. This amount of money you receive is based on your mortgage’s size and term, up to 7% of its value.
RBC’s Self-Employed Mortgage is available for self-employed individuals and has difficulty obtaining competitive rates for buying, refinancing, renovating, etc. With this product, financing is up to 90% of the value of your home.
And finally, the Vacation Home Mortgage from RBC lets you finance up to 95% of your vacation home’s value.
RBC’s online learning center includes a range of features such as guides on buying and selling your home, renovating your home, maximizing energy efficiency, and general mortgage advice, all aimed at self-education and making informed decisions on your mortgage products. As you do your information collection process, you should compare RBC’s mortgage rates against other lenders, banks, and mortgage brokers to obtain the best mortgage interest rate for your needs.
Accessing RBC mortgage rates today
You can get access to RBC mortgage rates by going to a local RBC bank directly. While RBC doesn’t work with mortgage brokers, it’s worth speaking to a mortgage broker when comparing mortgage rates. This is because the best mortgage brokers work with multiple lenders, have access to exclusive deals, the best mortgage brokers negotiate on your behalf for the best rates and terms. If you want to get your mortgage from one of the big banks, using a mortgage broker will most likely still get you a better deal as they have discounted rates
RBC Mortgage Features
Many of the RBC mortgages come with extra features that can help you pay down your mortgage faster or provide assistance during financial stress times.
RBC Skip-A-Payment: This feature lets you quickly and easily skip payments to your mortgage. You can miss four consecutive weekly payments, or two consecutive bi-weekly payments, or one monthly payment. One key point is the interest for skipped payments is added onto your mortgage balance; your mortgage payments will not change, though, and you can pay back your skipped payments anytime.
RBC Double-Up Payments: This feature lets you pay off your mortgage faster by doubling your regular monthly mortgage payments. You can prepay any amount from as low as $100 up to your standard mortgage payment amount. Any of this prepaid amount will go directly to paying down your principal and save you tens of thousands in interest over your mortgage’s lifetime.
RBC Annual Mortgage Prepayment: This feature allows you to prepay up to 10% of your mortgage’s original principal amount once every 12 months. This prepayment is applied directly to your mortgage principal, not the interest part of your mortgage.
RBC HomeProtector Insurance: The RBC insurance program can help pay for your mortgage in the event of death, disability. or critical illness. The premiums are set when you apply for your mortgage and will not increase as long as your mortgage balance does not increase over the term of your mortgage, and as long as you do not refinance your mortgage. Thes insurance payments are separate from your mortgage and are not included as part of an RBC mortgage.
RBC mortgage pre-approval
Once you have collected the necessary information you will need, such as your annual income, financial history, existing assets and liabilities, and employment information, you can complete the online pre-approval application to see your RBC mortgage rate in less than three minutes with their pre-qualification tool.
RBC mortgage application checklist
Once you have started the application process, RBC will ask you questions relating to what you owe and own; some of the expenses relating to the property, such as heating costs, taxes, and condo fees; also, whether you will be using the property to generate income. Additional information RBC will require includes:
- Your last two years T1 and Notice of Assessment
- A current list of your assets and liabilities
- The confirmation of your down payment may include recent bank statements, a Gift Letter, or RRSP withdrawal confirmations.
- Job letter proving current employment and income, including recent payslips
- Documents are proving additional income such as child tax credit etc.
- The details about the property your buying or currently own, including the MLS listing (if applicable) and any associated bills and taxes (e.g., property taxes, heating costs, and condo fees).
More on the Royal Bank of Canada
The Royal Bank of Canada is Canada’s largest bank as measured by assets and market capitalization, and is among the largest banks in the world, based on market capitalization. It is a diversified financial services company with personal and commercial and private banking, insurance, corporate and investment banking, wealth management services, and transaction processing services globally. It employs approximately 78,000 employees who serve close to 18 million personal public sector, business, and institutional clients through offices in Canada, 51 other countries, and the U.S.
RBC pros
Benefits are going with RBC for your mortgage.
Here are some of the pros:
- Full-service: A main key benefit of getting a mortgage with RBC is that you will have access to a range of financial products, such as unsecured and secured loans (including credit), investment products, and banking accounts, both personal and business.
- Reputation: If a brand name matters to you, it’s hard to beat Canada’s most famous bank’s reputation. RBC strives to offer reliable banking and mortgage services to its clients and has rigid controls to protect its clientele from mortgage fraud.
- Branch Access: With more than 1,300 branches across the country, as an RBC Royal Bank client, you will never be far from face-to-face contact should you need it. (Keep in mind fewer people need the face- to face it today than ever before.)
- Rate Discretion: Although the big banks don’t go out of their way to promote it, they offer better mortgage rates to their “best” clients. If you are doing a lot of business with RBC bank and have outstanding credit, RBC is more likely to offer you the rock-bottom mortgage rates if you know how to ask.
- Products Options: RBC has one of the most significant balance sheets in Canada to date, so its vast funding sources allow RBC to offer more mortgage products (like rental financing, commercial financing, cottage financing, vacation home financing, non-resident financing, etc.) At better rates than many of the competitor banks. More often than not, RBC’s renewal mortgage rates on their rental property financing product, for example, are better than what consumers can find at the other big banks.
Note: most of these niche products often require at least 20% down or 35%.
- Convenience: Again, if you require or prefer face-to-face contact when searching for a mortgage, RBC offers in-person visits by its mortgage specialists. They’re more than happy to meet you at your home, office, or public setting like a coffee shop. Nearly all RBC bank services can be accessed through its online banking portal.
RBC cons
Securing a mortgage through RBC Canada’s largest bank isn’t always what it seems to be. These are a few of the potential disadvantages of getting a mortgage from RBC:
- Higher Rates: RBC mortgage rates often are not the lowest rates available. Lower mortgage rates can usually be found through digital-first mortgage lenders and online discount mortgage brokers.
- Less Choice: When you go to RBC looking for a mortgage, you’ll be limited to selecting RBC-branded mortgages that may or may not be the best fit for you, Unlike with a mortgage broker that has a lot of different products that may fit you better.
- High Mortgage Prepayment Penalties: One of the most significant downsides of dealing with the top-6 banks is their break penalty formula. In most cases, if you break your fixed mortgage early, you could face a brutal prepayment charge (a.k.a., the interest rate differential charge, or IRD charge). IRD penalties from the big banks can and usually are thousands of dollars more than lenders that mortgage brokers have access to because they are based on the bank’s higher posted rates.
- Biased Advice: When you walk into an RBC bank branch looking for a mortgage, you are not going to get a comparison of HSBC or TD mortgages, even if they have the lowest rate on the market. When dealing with any of the big banks, it is always important to know that its bank reps or mobile mortgage specialists are not incentivized to advise you when another lender has a better product for your needs.
RBC’s prepayment charges
There are downsides to a fixed-rate mortgage, such as the restriction on paying out your mortgage early. Despite well-thought-out plans, unexpected life events sometimes require a mortgage to be broken and paid out early.
Like all of Canada’s Big six banks, RBC’s fixed-rate mortgage prepayment charges are calculated on the greater of:
- The interest rate differential (IRD) or
- Three months’ interest
This is based on the difference between the rate the bank could lend at today (the posted rate) and your rate for a term equivalent to the remaining term of your mortgage. The more your rate is above today’s published rates, the higher the IRD charge will be.
The Big six banks are notorious for having high— and astronomical— penalties. Always consider this when you are mortgage shopping or ask your mortgage broker; if there is a chance you may need to break your mortgage early, then you may be better off with a fair penalty lender. Or variable-rate mortgage (which charges three months’ interest penalty to break a mortgage early).
RBC Prime Rate
Each bank or lender determines its Prime rate. Banks in Canada usually look to the target overnight rate or the Policy Interest Rate set by the Bank of Canada (BoC). Similar changes typically follow changes in the target overnight rate in Prime rates. As a result, most banks and lenders in Canada have similar Prime rates.
Compare RBC Mortgage Rates
Why Choose RBC for Your Mortgage Needs?
RBC is committed to helping Canadians achieve their homeownership dreams through:
- Personalized Solutions: Tailored mortgage options that align with your financial situation and goals.
- Expert Advice: Access to knowledgeable advisors who guide you through every step of the mortgage process.
- Flexible Features: Options like prepayment privileges and various term lengths to suit your needs.
Comparing RBC Mortgage Rates
It’s essential to compare mortgage rates across different lenders to ensure you’re getting the best deal. At Rates4U.ca, we provide comprehensive comparisons of RBC’s rates with other major Canadian banks, helping you make informed decisions.
Compare rates from:
Special RBC Mortgage Programs and Offers
RBC provides various programs to assist homebuyers:
- First-Time Home Buyer Incentives: Programs designed to make homeownership more accessible for first-time buyers.
- New Resident and Non-Resident Home Ownership Programs: Simplified mortgage approval processes for newcomers to Canada or those looking to invest in Canadian property.
- Mortgage Prepayment Options: Flexibility to prepay up to 10% of the original principal mortgage amount annually without penalties.
For more details, visit Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) to explore additional programs and resources.
FAQs About RBC Mortgage Rates
RBC provides fixed-rate and variable-rate mortgages with both open and closed terms to suit various financial needs.
Yes, RBC offers options for transferring your mortgage from another lender, often with attractive rates and terms.
Yes, RBC allows customers to prepay up to 10% of the original principal mortgage amount annually without penalties.
**Need more insights? Check out the Government of Canada’s Mortgage Guide for helpful tips.
Final Thoughts - RBC Mortgage Rates & Mortgage Brokers: Your Key to the Best Rates
When it comes to finding the lowest mortgage rates, working with a mortgage broker can give you a significant advantage. Unlike banks that only offer their own rates and products, mortgage brokers have access to a wide range of lenders, including major banks, credit unions, and alternative lenders. This allows brokers to compare rates and tailor options to meet your unique financial needs.
At Rates4U.ca, we believe in helping you connect with top-tier mortgage brokerages, like Citadel Mortgages, known for consistently offering some of the lowest rates in Canada. By working with trusted brokerages, you get access to exclusive deals, personalized guidance, and expert support throughout the mortgage process.
Here’s how brokerages like Citadel Mortgages can help you:
- Market Access: They work with multiple lenders to find the best rates and terms for your situation.
- Exclusive Deals: Citadel Mortgages is known for negotiating rates lower than those publicly advertised by banks.
- Expert Support: Their experienced mortgage agents guide you through every step, ensuring a stress-free experience.
At Rates4U.ca, our mission is to simplify the mortgage process and connect you with brokers who deliver results. Whether you’re buying your first home, refinancing, or investing, brokerages like Citadel Mortgages can help you save thousands over the life of your mortgage.
Let us help you find the best broker and the lowest rates today—because saving on your mortgage starts here!