TORONTO, August 5, 2011… Canadian fixed mortgage rates are heading to record lows. RateSupermarket.ca, Canada’s mortgage rate comparison website, saw a drop in fixed mortgage rates this week and is expecting the trend to continue.

The 5 year government bond yields have dropped 27% in 2 weeks (12% of that decrease took place yesterday). Bond yields are closely tied to fixed mortgage rates of the same term, so Canadian consumers can expect 5 year fixed mortgage rates to decrease as well.

“The Rate Party isn’t over yet. We’re seeing some of the lowest fixed mortgage rates in the market since the start of the financial crisis in 2008,” says Kelvin Mangaroo, President of RateSupermarket.ca. “The lowest the 5 year fixed rate dropped to was 3.29 percent in November 2010. Today, we’re sitting at 3.36 percent and we expect that to decrease further over the next week.”

But the cheap money isn’t for everyone. With consumer debt levels on the raise, Canadians need to take a good look at their financial situation before jumping into a mortgage they won’t be able to handle when interest rates return to more normal levels.

“Consumers will need to practice restraint with these tempting rates,” added Mangaroo. “Just remember that rates are forecast to increase 2% over the next couple of years, so it’s a good idea to plan for higher future payments when researching your mortgage today.”

About RateSupermarket.ca (http://www.ratesupermarket.ca)
RateSupermarket.ca is the largest rate comparison service for personal finance products in Canada. Founded in May of 2008, their easy to use comparison engine provides much needed transparency into the Canadian financial market and allows visitors to quickly find the best rates. Over 1.5 million Canadians have turned to RateSupermarket.ca to save money on their mortgages, insurance, credit cards, GICs and savings accounts.

Shopping for the best credit card just got a whole lot easier with the new RateSupermarket.ca credit card comparison engine. Following feedback from our fantastic visitors, we recently relaunched our Credit Card Comparison Tool to allow customers to easily select their preferred card options while the results automatically filter.

Whether you’re looking for travel rewards, cash back, a low interest rate, or no annual fees (or any of those in combination), now you can quickly find the perfect card for you.

We’ve also created something called the Reward Return Rate since let’s face it not all rewards are created equal (what’s the true value of a point or a mile anyway?). The Reward Return Rate calculates the true rate of return so that you can compare like for like.

And if that wasn’t enough we also added 7 Scotiabank credit cards to our search engine. If you’re a satisfied Scotiabank customer here’s a quick way to compare the card options offered by your bank.

So if you’re walking around with a credit card in your wallet from years ago, maybe it’s time to reassess your credit needs. Credit card features have changed so much recently, why not start to take advantage of the new offers?

When I first started RateSupermarket.ca my vision for the Canadian consumer was for them to have the ability to leverage the internet to be able to compare rates for financial products in one place. At it’s core, we’ve been able to provide Canadians with transparent, unbiased information, giving the consumer the ability to make an informed decision.

How exciting it has been to watch the times change and see consumers taking control of their own financial journeys.

In fact,

• 73% of Canadians comparison shop online, up from 55% in 2008
  
• 66% of Canadians believe that their purchase decisions were positively influenced by online product experts
  
• 9 out of 10 first time homebuyers in Canada use the Internet to research mortgages
  

As I prepare for my presentation I can’t wait for what the future will bring – and am excited to be part of this financial revolution.

~Kelvin

TORONTO, December 1, 2010 – RateSupermarket.ca, Canadian consumers’ go-to-website to compare and save money on personal finance products such as mortgage rates, credit cards and GIC rates, today announced it will supply bank and credit card recommendation data to Canadian users of Mint.com.

RateSupermarket.ca’s market-leading rate data and extensive network of financial institutions and brokers will enable Mint.com, a leading online personal finance service from Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU), to provide personalized money saving recommendations to its users, as well as easy access to all products.

“The depth and breadth of RateSupermarket.ca’s data and relationships will enable Mint.com to provide Canadians with personalized money saving offers,” said Aaron Patzer, general manager and vice president of Intuit Personal Finance and founder of Mint.com.

Mint is a leading online personal finance service that helps Canadians see where their money goes, keep their spending on track by creating budgets they’ll stick with, and uncovers opportunities to save them money. Mint aggregates a user’s banking, credit card and other financial accounts and transaction information, categorizing expenses to show how much a user pays for rent, restaurants, gas, and more. Mint also provides unique, money-saving and money–making recommendations based on users’ individual spending patterns. RateSupermarket.ca is the exclusive Canadian provider of bank and credit card recommendation data on Mint.com/Canada.

“The official launch of Mint.com/Canada into the Canadian market means that consumers will finally have the opportunity to utilize one of the fastest growing money saving tools in the US. Together we can deliver first class technology that will change the way Canadians manage, save and grow their money.” said Kelvin Mangaroo, President of RateSupermarket.ca.

About RateSupermarket.ca (http://www.ratesupermarket.ca)

RateSupermarket.ca is the largest independent and impartial rate comparison service for personal finance products in Canada. Founded in May of 2008, their easy to use comparison engine provides much needed transparency to the Canadian financial market and allows visitors to quickly find the best rates. Over 1M Canadians have turned to RateSupermarket.ca to save money on their mortgage, insurance, credit cards and GICs.

After 2 and a half years of providing Canadian consumers with the savings they deserve through our easy to use online comparison tools, we thought it was time for a refresh.

Tomorrow RateSupermarket.ca will be unveil a whole new look and feel to our website. Consumers will still be able to compare mortgage rates, insurance quotes, GICs and credit cards offered by top providers in Canada, but soon it will be easier, cleaner and a bit more fun too.

Our new design also improves a few tools such as our handy calculators, informative product guides, and top tips which are great resources and will help you during your credit card, insurance, gic and mortgage shopping.

In the coming weeks we will also be updating our online forum, making it much more simple for our users to share money saving tips, ask questions and keep up-to-date on all the latest money news.

One thing won’t change and that’s our commitment to Canadian consumers to provide the best rates in Canada with one quick and easy search to help save you time and money.

So stay turned. We hope you love the new RateSupermarket.ca as much as we do.

RateSupermarket.ca’s President, Kelvin Mangaroo, was asked to have a chat with Jacqueline Milczarek, Anchor, CTV News Today and CTV News Weekend, about the Bank of Canada’s upcoming expected interest rate hike and how that will affect mortgage rates.

RateSupermarket.ca is on the front page of today’s Globe and Mail ‘Life’ section following on from our HST study last week.

As a follow up to our research into the estimated increase in buying and selling a home as a result of HST, we delved into the additional expenses condo and home owners could expect as well. You can view the full calculations for the higher home and condo owner costs here.

You can view the full article online or in today’s Globe and Mail.

Following our HST study last week on the additional cost HST will add for Canadian home buyers and home owners once it’s introduced on July 1st, we were featured last night on CTV’s evening news Consumer Alerts segment with Pat Foran.

Here is a link to the home and condo owner costs that are referenced in the segment.

RateSupermarket.ca’s founder, Kelvin Mangaroo, was on CTV’s Canada AM this morning along with Roberts Group mortgage broker & owner Paula Roberts, answering viewer’s mortgage related questions.

I’ve written the answers to the questions I was asked on the show here.

We are pleased to announce the latest update we’ve developed and released on the site is the “Details & offers” section in the mortgage rates search results as shown below:

Details & offers

The idea here is for our partners to include any specific details and special offers that are available for the mortgage rate their listing with us. Examples of details that can appear are:

• Quick closes – if the rate listed is a discounted special with a specific closing date needed (ie. within 30 days)
• Prepayment details – which outlines the amount stated in a percentage (%) that you can can prepay ahead of schedule without penalty both monthly and annually
• Usually stated as 20%/20% with the 1st term for monthly prepayments and the 2nd for annual prepayments
• So 20/20 or 20%/20% means you can over pay 20% of the mortgage over and above your monthly and annual payments respectively
• Special offers – such as free appraisals, if any closing costs are covered by the lender or broker and so on

We have also included the “Details & Offers” information on the best mortgage rates page, to help you see what is included with the best products on offer.

We hope you find this information useful and we will keep you updated as we add more features to try and make our comparison results as detailed and accurate as possible.

Happy mortgage shopping.

Kelvin