Refinancing Your Mortgage Online in Canada: How the Digital Process Works

Refinancing used to mean branch meetings and paper forms. Today some lenders and brokers let you apply and upload documents online, and identity can be verified remotely under FINTRAC’s rules; the final legal step may still need an in-person visit to sign with a lawyer or notary. This guide covers which steps can be digital, how remote identity checks work, what to upload, and how to check who you are dealing with. It is part of the refinancing and home equity hub. The rules, costs and penalty are the same online or in person: see how to refinance your mortgage for those, and when to refinance for whether it pays.

Which steps can be done online

How much of this is online varies by lender, so ask before you apply which steps are digital and which need a visit.

Who offers online refinancing

FCAC lists the kinds of mortgage lenders: banks, caisses populaires, credit unions, mortgage companies, insurance companies, trust companies and loan companies. You can go to a lender directly or through a mortgage broker.

• Lenders set their own criteria: “Each lender sets their own lending guidelines and policies.”
• Brokers “don’t lend money directly to you”. FCAC notes that “since brokers have access to many lenders, they may offer a wider range of mortgage products to choose from”, that brokers don’t all work with the same lenders, and that “mortgage brokers generally don’t charge fees for their services”; they usually receive a commission from the lender instead. Brokers vs banks vs online lenders compares the channels.

Checking who you’re dealing with. “The provinces and territories regulate mortgage brokers,” says FCAC, so the body to check with depends on the province. In British Columbia, mortgage brokers must be registered with the BC Financial Services Authority’s Registrar of Mortgage Brokers. In Alberta, the Real Estate Council of Alberta (RECA) sets and enforces professional standards for mortgage brokerage as well as real estate. In Ontario, the Mortgage Brokerages, Lenders and Administrators Act requires a brokerage licence to deal in mortgages, issued by the Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA). FCAC also keeps a list of the provincial and territorial agencies that regulate financial institutions; it is not a list of mortgage-broker regulators. Banks are federally regulated; FCAC’s page on discharging a mortgage notes that federally regulated lenders have to disclose the discharge fee in your contract.

How lenders verify your identity remotely

FINTRAC’s rules on verifying identity apply to all its reporting entities. That includes banks and other financial entities and, since October 11, 2024, mortgage brokers, lenders and administrators. FINTRAC’s guidance describes the methods, including:

• Government-issued photo ID, when you’re not physically present. The lender has to authenticate the document, for example by having you scan it with your phone and using technology to check its features and security markings. It then confirms the ID is yours, for example through a live video chat or a selfie compared with the ID photo by facial recognition. FINTRAC states: “It is not enough to only view a person and their government-issued photo identification document through a video conference or another type of virtual application.”
• Credit file. The lender searches your credit file at the time it verifies you. The file has to be from a Canadian credit bureau, to have existed for at least three years, to draw on more than one source, and to match your name, address and date of birth.
• Dual process. Information from two different reliable sources, such as a utility statement and a bank statement.

If you are new to Canada or have a thin credit file, the photo ID method may be the one that works for you.

Documents to upload

FCAC lists what lenders look at: identification, proof of employment and income, your assets and your debts. For a refinance:

Upload documents through the lender’s or broker’s secure portal rather than by email. The full list is in the mortgage document checklist.

Appraisal, approval and the rate hold

The lender decides how to confirm your home’s value. FCAC lists “an appraisal fee to confirm the value of your property (if necessary)” among the costs of moving to a new lender, so ask whether an appraisal is needed and who pays for it. The value matters: Under the Bank Act, a bank's loan to buy, renovate or improve a home, or a refinance of such a loan, together with any mortgage ranking equal to or ahead of it, can't exceed 80% of the home's value.

Once conditions are met, the lender issues a commitment letter, which you may be able to review and accept electronically. On rate holds, FCAC says: A preapproval can hold an interest rate for 60 to 130 days, depending on the lender. Qualifying is the same as in person: Lenders check that you could afford the payments at the greater of your contract rate plus 2% or 5.25%, a floor set by OSFI for uninsured mortgages and by the federal government's mortgage insurance rules (the Minister of Finance's Eligible Mortgage Loan Regulations) for insured ones.

The legal step

FCAC says that discharging a mortgage is done with a lawyer, a notary or a commissioner of oaths “in most cases”, and the process varies by province. When the refinance replaces your registered mortgage (for example with a new lender), the lawyer or notary pays out the old mortgage, has the old charge discharged and registers the new one. If your lender holds a collateral charge registered for more than you owe, it may lend you more without a new registration. Some offer remote signing by video; ask whether yours does and whether any document needs a signature in person. FCAC puts professional fees for a discharge typically between $400 and $2,500. The mortgage discharge process explains the provincial steps.

Costs

Refinancing online doesn’t change what it costs: a prepayment penalty if you break a closed mortgage before the term ends, plus fees such as appraisal, discharge, legal and title costs. Some lenders cover some fees; FCAC notes lenders “may be willing to pay some of all the fees”. The cost table is in how to refinance your mortgage, and the mortgage penalty calculator estimates the penalty.

Protecting yourself online

When a digital refinance fits, and when it may not

Related pages

• How to refinance your mortgage
• When should I refinance?
• Cash-out refinance
• Mortgage refinance calculator
• Mortgage renewal guide
• Mortgage calculator