Debt Consolidation Calculator (whether it can clear your debts)

Yes, as long as the amount you qualify for covers everything to be paid off. A reverse mortgage generally requires any mortgage or credit line secured by the home to be paid off and closed, and it can clear cards, loans and tax owing at the same time, all paid out at closing. After that there is no monthly payment: the interest is added to the balance instead. How much is available depends on the age of the younger spouse on title, the home and where it is. The calculator checks everything you owe against the typical range for your age, at the low end and at the high end.

Lenders typically advance a share of the home's value that rises with age: 12–30% at 55 to 59, 22–46% at 70 to 74, and 39–55% at 85 and over, keyed to the younger spouse for CHIP. Location moves it: the same home in a major city typically qualifies for a larger share than in a smaller centre. The exact figure is the lender's, confirmed in writing for your home.

If your mortgage's term is not up, usually yes: the same penalty as paying it off any other way. On a variable rate it is 3 months' interest; on a fixed rate, the greater of 3 months' interest and the interest rate differential. At renewal there is none, so waiting for the renewal date can save the whole penalty. The calculator estimates it the way the penalty calculator on our main site does, and the figure from your lender's payout statement replaces the estimate.

From the lenders' own published figures: HomeEquity Bank's closing fee of $1,795, with the appraisal and independent legal advice taking its own published total to at most $3,095; Bloom Finance's $2,300 for its processing fee, appraisal and legal-advice certificate; and a $995 set-up fee at Equitable Bank and at Home Trust, with the appraisal and your lawyer quoted on your file. They come out of the money advanced, so they add to the balance, and the calculator counts them, with the penalty, as the cost of doing it.

There is no monthly payment, but the interest compounds, so the balance grows every year and the equity left in the home shrinks. Reverse mortgage rates typically run 1.5 to 2.5 percentage points above a 5-year fixed mortgage. The calculator shows the trade both ways: what you would pay and still owe carrying the debts as they are, against what you would owe on the reverse mortgage. A no-negative-equity guarantee means neither you nor your estate ever owes more than the home's fair market value; the guarantee is the lender's, not ours (CHIP, Equitable Bank, Bloom and Home Trust each carry one), it holds as long as the mortgage's obligations are kept, and the product terms govern. And the cards it clears have to stay clear.