Case Study · Residential / Prime

A Single Parent's Maternity-Leave Debt: A Major-Bank Refinance at 48% in North Vancouver Consolidated It and Added a Safety Line

Our client, a single parent with a toddler, owns a two-bedroom condo in North Vancouver worth about $842,000, with about 18 years at one employer and a 780 credit score. A mortgage of about $296,000 remained, and part of the maternity leave had been paid for with unsecured debt.

Closed in 2025 · Published October 17, 2026

Residential
Prime lender
Refinance
Debt consolidation
Single income
HELOC

Condo value: about $842,000
New mortgage: about $365,000
Equity line: $35,000
Loan-to-value: 47.5%
Credit score: 780

The Situation

The Challenge

Consolidating meant borrowing more on one salary of about $69,000 plus the child benefit, at debt-service ratios already near 46%.

The Solution

In 2025 we refinanced with a major Canadian bank: a new mortgage of about $365,000 on a five-year adjustable term at prime minus 0.65%, about 4.3% at the time, with a $35,000 home equity line beside it, together 47.5% of the condo's value. The bank counted the child benefit with the salary.

The Outcome

The unsecured debt was paid out at closing for lower overall payments, and a line of credit now sits ready for the next surprise instead of a credit card.

Run the numbers

Blended Rate Calculator

This refinance moved unsecured debt onto a mortgage rate. See the true blended cost of your own mortgage and other debts.

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Your debts

Tip: paste from Excel or your system — balance and rate can be tab or comma separated (e.g. $12,000 → 5.29%).

Your blended effective rate

0.00%

on $0 total · weighted nominal 0.00%

Annual interest cost

Total / year$0

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Effective Annual Rate (EAR) = (1 + r/n)ⁿ − 1. Compounding follows Canadian convention: fixed mortgages semi-annual, variable / LOC / HELOC monthly, credit card and CRA daily.

Annual interest · who's eating you alive

The longest bar is your biggest annual interest cost. What consolidation actually saves depends on each rate's gap to the mortgage rate — see the comparison below.

What consolidation could save

Rolls every non-mortgage debt into one mortgage-style loan (semi-annual compounding) at the rate below. Interest cost only — prepayment penalties, legal and appraisal fees are not included.

Consolidate at

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What this calculator does that most don't

Each debt type carries its true compounding convention — credit cards and CRA debt compound daily, mortgages semi-annually, lines monthly — and the blend is computed on effective annual rates
Includes a CRA tax-debt row (daily compounding, non-deductible) — because that's a real balance on real files
Paste straight from Excel — balances and rates split automatically from tab or comma data

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Questions and answers

Questions about this file

Can you consolidate debt from a maternity leave into your mortgage?+

This single parent did, in 2025. Part of the leave had been paid for with unsecured debt; a major Canadian bank refinanced the North Vancouver condo and paid it out at closing, for lower overall payments.

Does a bank count the child benefit?+

This one did. It counted the child benefit with the salary of about $69,000, which mattered at debt-service ratios already near 46%.

What were the terms?+

A new mortgage of about $365,000 on a five-year adjustable term at prime minus 0.65%, about 4.3% in 2025, with a $35,000 home equity line beside it, together 47.5% of the condo's value.

Why add a line of credit?+

So the next surprise has somewhere to go other than a credit card: the line sits ready beside the mortgage.

How long had the client been with the employer?+

About 18 years, with a 780 credit score, which is what carried a single salary at ratios that were already high.

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