Fold the debts into the house — only if it actually pays.
Put in your home’s value, your mortgage, any second mortgage or line, and every card and loan. It works out the penalty, the legal, appraisal and lender fees for a bank, B or private lender, checks the new mortgage against that lender’s limit, and tells you plainly whether consolidating saves more than it costs, or only stretches the debt out.
Your home
Property type
Your first mortgage
Rate type
How your lender works out the penalty
Estimated penalty: $7,800 (interest rate differential), the same method as the penalty calculator on mortgageguru.ca.
Other mortgages and home equity lines
None. Add a second mortgage or a home equity line here if you have one.
Every other debt
The new mortgage
Payments
The rate is an example to start from: enter the rate you are quoted. Private mortgages are usually interest only, on a one or two year term.
What it costs to do it
No appraisal cost is assumed: enter it if your lender asks for one. Starting fees for this lender: lender 0%, broker 0%. A broker fee, when there is one, is at least $2,500. Change anything to match your quote.
Pay the costs
Compare over
The interest both ways, and every cost of doing it, over this many years.
Does it make sense?
Makes sense on these numbers
Over the next 5 years you would pay $40,455 less interest, which is $30,155 more than the $10,300 it costs to do. Your payments drop $1,956 a month.
Consolidating turns cards, lines and loans into debt secured against your home. If the payments stop, the home is what is at risk, and the cleared cards have to stay clear.
Monthly payments
One payment of $2,444 over 30 years.
The new mortgage
$530,300
Pays out everything above, costs included
Room left under the limit: $189,700
What it costs to do it
- Penalty on your first mortgage
- $7,800
- Legal, including title insurance
- $2,500
- Appraisal
- $0
- Lender fee (0%)
- $0
- Broker fee (0%)
- $0
- Total
- $10,300
Added to the mortgage, so nothing is paid in cash at closing. The interest saved covers them after about 11 months.
Interest over the next 5 years
- Interest saved
- $40,455
- Less the cost to do it
- −$10,300
- Net over 5 years
- $30,155
Still owed after 5 years: $400,947 now, $477,370 after.
Want your real numbers run? The penalty from your lender’s payout statement, the rate you would actually get, and the lender whose limits fit your file, run both ways, including waiting for your renewal. Send it to Ramin with a recent pay stub; he takes these calls around shift work.
The rules this runs on — and how the math was verified
Every debt is run month by month at its own rate and payment until it is paid off; a payment below the interest lets the balance grow. Fixed mortgages compound twice a year, the Canadian way; variable mortgages, lines, cards and loans monthly. Rates are assumed to stay where they are for the whole period, your first mortgage to renew at the same rate, and money freed up each month is not assumed to earn anything. The net figure is the whole difference, counting what you pay out and what you still owe at the end, both ways.
The penalty is 3 months’ interest on a variable rate, and on a fixed rate the greater of that and the interest rate differential (the gap between your rate and the lender’s comparison rate, over the months left), by your lender’s own method; more than five years into a longer term the Interest Act limits it to 3 months’ interest. Lender and broker fees are a share of the new mortgage, so adding the costs to it grosses it up, and a broker fee is never less than $2,500. The limits are typical maximums (bank and B lender 80% of value; private first 75%, 65% on a condo; private second 75% combined, 65% on a condo); each lender sets its own.
The verdict: more than $1,000 ahead over the years you chose is “makes sense”, within $1,000 either way is “close”, and more than $1,000 behind is “costs more”. A lower payment on its own is never called a saving.
The engine is the same code as the debt consolidation calculator on mortgageguru.ca, copied byte for byte and held to it by an automated check. It was proven against an independent reference written first, in a different language with exact decimals: 16 worked cases, 400 figures, every one matching to the cent, run against this site’s copy too. Arithmetic last verified October 20, 2026. It’s an illustration, not a quote or a commitment to lend.
One of the Mortgage Guru Financial family’s 60+ free calculators — counted honestly. The routes in plain words: refinancing and taking equity out and second mortgages.
Straight answers before you fold anything in.
Does consolidating debt into my mortgage make sense on an officer's salary?
The salary helps you qualify; it does not change the arithmetic. Consolidating makes sense when the interest you save over the next few years is more than everything it costs to do: the penalty on your mortgage, legal, an appraisal if one is needed, and the lender and broker fees a B or private mortgage carries. A lower monthly payment on its own proves nothing. A vehicle loan stretched over 30 years costs less a month and can still cost more interest. The calculator compares both, over the number of years you choose.
Does my overtime, shift premium or paid duty count when I consolidate?
Usually yes, when a consistent history is documented, and how much of it counts varies between lenders, the same as on any officer file. It matters on a consolidation because the payment on the new mortgage has to be carried by the income a lender agrees to recognise, and that can decide which kind of lender the file suits. This calculator checks the new mortgage against the home's value; the shift-income qualifier shows how your pay stub reads.
Run your pay through the shift-income qualifier →Is a pension buyback the same as consolidating debt?
No, and this calculator does not price one. Consolidating clears debts you already owe, such as cards, lines, loans or a second mortgage, into one mortgage. Buying back pensionable service is a purchase from your pension plan: what it costs and how it can be paid are set by the plan, so the plan's administrator is where that number comes from. Borrowing against the house to fund a buyback is a different question, what the added service is worth to you against what the borrowing costs, and it is worth talking through before either is decided.
What does it cost to consolidate, and should I wait for my renewal?
Breaking a mortgage before its term is up carries a penalty: 3 months' interest on a variable rate, and the greater of 3 months' interest or the interest rate differential on a fixed rate. At renewal there is none, so consolidating then costs the least. On top of that comes legal, which the calculator starts at $2,500 including title insurance, an appraisal if the lender asks for one, and on a B or private mortgage a lender fee and a broker fee, each a percentage of the new mortgage, the broker fee never less than $2,500. A private second can clear the debts now without breaking a low-rate first mortgage. Every figure in the calculator can be changed to match your quote.
What is the risk of turning cards and loans into mortgage debt?
Cards, lines and loans that were unsecured become debt secured against your home, so if the payments stop, the home is what is at risk. Spreading short debts over a long amortization can mean more interest in total, even at a lower rate. And it only works once: the cleared cards have to stay clear, because running them up again leaves you with the bigger mortgage and the old debts back. We say both halves out loud before anything is signed.