Here is great article by Gerry Marr from Financial post that  every homeowner should read.

Bank offers you should refuse!

One of my favorites is the cash-back mortgage. It is offered to a varying degree by most of the major banks, so there is no point in picking on any one institution.

Here’s the offer: Take out a mortgage for more than five years and get 5% of the value of the mortgage up front to a maximum of $25,000. In other words, get a $500,000 loan and immediately get $25,000 back. “It’s great for first-time buyers,” we’re told.

Really? If the loan is at the posted rate of 5.44%, which it usually is for these types of mortgages, you could easily land into more debt trouble long term.

Another deal tries to lure me over to a new bank with an offer of 2% cash up front, or up to $4,000 on $200,000 if I switch to the financial institution. But what about the costs to break my existing mortgage, and is there really any point in switching products to get that cash right away if I’m going to end up with a higher rate and a less-flexible mortgage?

“Somebody is going to pay for it,” says Kelvin Mangaroo, president of RateSupermarket.ca, about the cost of the promises. “Sometimes there is more fine print than the actual offer.”

“Somebody is going to pay for it. Sometimes there is more fine print than the actual offer”

There are other deals out there. One mortgage will offer you travel points, another will let you take “payment holidays,” but the details are scarce on both as to whether they’ll cost you more and ultimately make it even harder to pay down your debt.

And let’s not forget the home-equity line of credit. You finally pay off your mortgage and there’s the bank ready to offer you more debt. “You tap into your home equity,” reads a headline from one bank about solving some issues like a home renovation or your child’s education. It sounds so simple.