The following article in yesterdays Globe and Mail is a great article on the recent changes to the Manulife All-in-One product which has most of their clients seeing red. This product which is sold through financial advisers (not available through mortgage brokers) was sold by the financial advisers as a "prime rate" product and that the rate would never change. This selling feature written in the content of product details on the Manulife website has since been removed from the Manulife website.
[Source - ROB CARRICK - globeandmail.com 18/11/08]
When you deal with companies in the financial sector, you run the risk that their pain will turn out to be your pain.
This is what's happened recently to clients of Manulife Financial, Canada's biggest insurance company, and Envision Financial, a large credit union in British Columbia. Affected in various ways by the global financial crisis, both have made changes that resulted in higher borrowing costs for some clients.
In the past few years or so, virtually all financial institutions have bumped up the cost of mortgages and lines of credit. But Manulife and Envision differ in that it's not just new clients who will pay more. Existing clients who may have thought they had a particular arrangement in place are now paying more as well.
Before the financial crisis, you could get away with signing up for a mortgage or line of credit without asking about your lender's ability to change the rules determining your interest rate. Now, it's clear that you have to ask, or risk a surprise increase later on.
Read Full Article Here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20081118.RCARRICK18/TPStory/Business
Similar All-in-One products are offered by mortgage brokers through other lenders. Be sure to speak with a professional mortgage agent and get all the details on these types of products before going into them.
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