Hmm, now that I re-read your post I'm not sure what "penalties" they are talking to you about on the accelerated plan? We are on the accelerated plan and there are no penalties to be on the accelerated plan or to make double up payments... that I know of? Maybe I'm confused? In our case, the big penalty was going to come from switching from a 5.1% rate to a 3.75% rate... they make you pay the difference between the two rates that they would have made off of you on the remaining term. So for us it would've been $15,000+. Hope I'm explaining that right.
My broker recently told me that she doesn't think the interest rate would be changing for at least a year... but that's just her opinion I guess, fwiw. You could chance it on the variable and always lock in at a later date if it looks like rates would be going up.
I'd recommend getting your own life and disability insurance. From what I can tell, the RBC insurance is not a good deal and if anything were to happen, the life insurance $$ goes to them directly (not your spouse or dependents or whatever). So if you go get your own insurance you can:
a) get more insurance for the same price (that's what I've found)
b) your beneficiaries get the insurance money directly and they decide if they want to use it to pay off the mortgage or not (maybe they prefer to sell the home and use the insurance money for something else, for example). So having your own insurance offers a bit more flexibility in that regard.
c) When we moved, we had to re-qualify for RBC insurance even though we ported the same mortgage. So if a health issue had come up between the time we first qualified and the time we moved, we would've had a hard time getting insured (more premiums I guess). So with your own insurance you can always move and not worry about it.
I'm not an expert by any means, but that's what I've learned over the past couple years with my home-buying, mortgage and insurance experiences.
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