TD Mortgage Features

TD offers the following mortgage features:

Increase Your Mortgage Payment: 
Each year you can make an extra payment for your month of choice. This is an important feature, as it allows you to pay down your mortgage more quickly when you have a little extra cash available. Many mortgages apply a penalty when you wish to make additional payments, which makes this a feature to use as a point of comparison. The payment can be up to the full amount of your usual monthly payment.

Annual Mortgage Prepayment:
Another way TD helps you pay down your mortgage more quickly is their annual mortgage prepayment. This allows you to contribute up to 15% of your original mortgage principal as a lump sum each year on closed mortgages. When you take advantage of this option, you reduce interest paid over the life of your mortgage and become mortgage-free sooner.

Payment Pause: 
Over the full amortization period of your mortgage, TD allows you to skip four payments, with a limit of one per year. This means you can’t save them all up and then skip all four at once. These skipped payments are not considered a default held against you and instead act more like a deferral or grace period without a negative impact on your payment history. The payment pause is based on your payment frequency, either a single skipped payment for the month, two skipped payments for bi-weekly, and four skipped payments for weekly. However, when you skip a payment, it’s important to remember it slows down how long it takes to pay off your mortgage. It also costs you more in interest. This is especially true if you take full advantage of the four payment pauses you are allowed to take over the life of your mortgage. This is because TD applies the interest not paid on your skipped payments to your principal balance. It is best to save your paused payments for a rainy day.

Payment Vacation: 
In hand with your payment pause option, TD also offers a payment “vacation” for up to four months. This is based on the prepaid amount of your mortgage. It is ideal for scenarios where you need time off work and aren’t earning money, whether it is because you are sick, having a baby, or returning to school. As with the payment pause, be sure this is worth it, because those four months of interest accrue and are applied to your mortgage principal. Also, it will take you at least four months longer to pay off your mortgage, in hand with the time it takes to pay off the extra interest. Although it does make your mortgage a bit more flexible, make sure you understand the pros and cons.

Monthly Property Tax Payments:
Most mortgages require you to pay your property tax along with your mortgage payments. If your mortgage does not, TD offers the option for you to pay towards your property taxes and the money collected they then pay for you when they are due. There really isn’t a big benefit to this, but it’s there if you want it.

Mortgage Protection Insurance: 
At the time you sign your mortgage, you can opt-in for mortgage protection insurance. The premiums do not increase over the life of your mortgage, and your insurance offers coverage for various scenarios, such as the death of the policyholder or a critical illness that keeps you from making payments. Mortgage life insurance is always a good idea, as it pays off your mortgage, so the burden of the payments doesn’t fall onto the shoulders of family members. Just keep in mind the premiums add up over time and impact your mortgage payments.