First National Financial

[RedDawn]

My mortgage broker is recommending I got with First National Financial for the mortgage on my new place.

I've only ever dealt with banks before and was wondering if anyone has experience with them specifically or any non-bank lender. Anything I need to watch out for, or are they pretty much the same as a bank?

[sabad66]

I'm with a small non-big-bank lender (Canadiana) and the only minor complaint i have is visibility into the mortgage details such current balance, equity, etc. They don't have an "online banking" portal and the only info I get is at the end of the year in a paper statement.

Again this is a minor thing and it really doesn't bother me since i also have a spreadsheet to keep track of payments/equity/balance/principal numbers. This minor inconvenience is worth the tradeoff for the low rate they offered me.

[timdog]

i have two mortgages with First National and have found them to be great. good online banking, good customer service. also was referred to them by a broker and after liking them so much I actually moved one mortgage from Scotiabank to FN after the term was up because I did not like some of the BS that Scotiabank pulls.

[buh_buh]

I've got my mortgage through them.
Haven't had a bad experience.

[msommers]

What BS? I'm also with Scotia and things have been really smooth so far.

[ercchry]

I have a 5 year fixed with them that's up for renewal soon... Haven't really had to deal with them up to this point so we will see... The cost to cancel early when we were looking to sell a place was WAY cheaper than those tricky fucks at Scotia... But that's another story all together

[Wrinkly]

Great Company! Excellent as far as I'm concerned. MCAP is another good one in my experience :thumbsup:

[tpurcell4]

First National is one of the oldest non-bank lenders in Canada, and they are constantly in the top 3 mortgage providers (volume of mortgages). They typically have great customer service, fast turn around times, and competitive rates which is why many brokers recommend them.

They also took over underwriting for a large chunk of TD's mortgages last year.

They were one of the first non-bank lenders to offer a client portal so that you can view your balances online at anytime, and they are the only lender that offers one year free Home Warranty on Electrical, Plumbing, Heating and air conditioning. So if you are buying an older home and the Furnace dies, you pay a $50 service fee for someone to come out to inspect, and the warranty covers up to $10,000 per year.

We rarely have complaints regarding them as a lender, however they do exist as with any lender.

Hope this helps!

Cheers

Todd

[Neil4Speed]

I'm with them, haven't had any bad experiences...

One thing I wish I would have considered was going with a company which offers job loss protection (if you are susceptible to that kind of thing). Thankfully, I'm still employed, however, that peace of mind is really valuable.

[dandia89]

Originally posted by Neil4Speed
I'm with them, haven't had any bad experiences...

One thing I wish I would have considered was going with a company which offers job loss protection (if you are susceptible to that kind of thing). Thankfully, I'm still employed, however, that peace of mind is really valuable.

which mortgages offer that? I've never heard of it. Do they pause payments until you are employed again?

[Neil4Speed]

I'm pretty sure its Manulife and BMO

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/columnists/2009/06/02/to_buy_or_not_to_buy_extra_jobloss_insurance.html

[timdog]

Originally posted by msommers
What BS? I'm also with Scotia and things have been really smooth so far.

Scotia (and many of the major banks) have some sketchy practices for heavily penalizing you when you try to terminate your contract early. The law states that banks can charge 3 months interest or the Interest Rate Differential (IRD) calculation amount, whichever is greater. What Scotia does and successfully sneaks by most people is they will give you a rate of let's say 2.99% but they will call it a "special rate" or something like that and in the contract they will say that their "posted rate" is 4.5% for example. Then, when you try to get out, they will do the IRD calculation based on the posted rate, which to be fair you agreed to in the contract. but it's sneaky bullshit. so in the exact same situation, with FN, the IRD calculated penalty might be $3000 but with Scotia it could be like $12,000. no joke.
this is just one thing I've come across. I've also had horrific customer service there, and pushy/sales-y vibes from their mortgage specialists.

[albertGQ]

Originally posted by tpurcell4
First National is one of the oldest non-bank lenders in Canada, and they are constantly in the top 3 mortgage providers (volume of mortgages). They typically have great customer service, fast turn around times, and competitive rates which is why many brokers recommend them.

They also took over underwriting for a large chunk of TD's mortgages last year.

They were one of the first non-bank lenders to offer a client portal so that you can view your balances online at anytime, and they are the only lender that offers one year free Home Warranty on Electrical, Plumbing, Heating and air conditioning. So if you are buying an older home and the Furnace dies, you pay a $50 service fee for someone to come out to inspect, and the warranty covers up to $10,000 per year.

We rarely have complaints regarding them as a lender, however they do exist as with any lender.

Hope this helps!

Cheers

Todd

If you are talking about strictly the broker channel, I can't recall the last time they were even 3rd. They've been consistently 2nd behind only Scotia so ultimately #1 non bank lender in the broker channel.