pros:
Cons:
Explanation:
Pros: Reputation: As one of the top banks in the country, you can generally rest assured that your mortgage is in good hands due to the bank's due diligence and strict controls in place to protect its clients and their assets.
Full-service: Scotiabank offers its clients access to a variety of complementary bank services, whether that be additional banking accounts, investment products, insurance or other secured/unsecured loans.
Rate Discretion: Most of Scotiabank's mortgage rates are negotiated on a case-by-case basis. This is good news if you're a financially strong client with good negotiation skills, and even better if you do significant business with the bank and are seeking an above-average-sized mortgage.
Branch Access: With more than 900 branches across Canada (as of January 2018), chances are you're not very far from a brick-and-mortar location where Scotia's mortgage advisors will be happy to meet with you to assist with any matters pertaining to your loan.
Cons: Potentially Higher Rates: Scotiabank is one of the country's largest banks. And like the other big banks, it tries to maximize margins, meaning its rates are not always particularly competitive. Because it doesn't typically make special offer rates available, your main hope for competitive pricing is with a discretionary rate. And this requires you to be well-qualified, and for some haggling on your part or willingness to give Scotia non-mortgage business. Even then, Scotia's rates often can't compete with some of the online discount brokerages.
Fixed Penalties Can be Higher: Some mortgage providers offer discounted penalties should you need to break the mortgage early. This isn't the case with the big banks, including Scotia. They use a prepayment charge, known as an IRD (Interest Rate Differential), which is based on their higher posted rates. That means a potentially much larger penalty for breaking a fixed-rate mortgage.
Less Choice: Doing business directly with a big bank means you will be limiting your options when it comes to mortgage products, since the big banks only sell their own branded mortgages. If you can find all of the features you require in a Scotiabank mortgage, and at a competitive rate, then this isn't an issue.
Restrictive Mortgage Insurance: As with the other big banks, Scotiabank's creditor life mortgage insurance can't be ported should you switch to a new lender. Instead, you would need to buy new insurance, which could result in higher premiums at the time.
