Always keep your receipts.

Nope. Liens are recorded with the county/state as part of property law, as well as any other encumbrances. So that would actually probably make your situation worse because the lien holder would have no clue about the debt and claim on the property and could be hell for you to remove even if you kept paying and eventually paid everything off. Could potentially be a nightmarish scenario and an exercise in pure bureaucracy. Probably some Brazil or Catch-22 style shit.

Nope. Rates are based off a prime lending rate which is equal amongst all the big banks. But like they said, you are free to shop around.

Credit unions usually have good offers.

Ideally you’re not buying a home that you can’t afford if rates go up too much.

Assuming Canada is like the UK, competition in the mortgage market means a bank hiking the rates will lose your business. Of course you can be unlucky if interest rates are unusually high at the time your fixed rate deal is up for renewal.

My 'local' credit union does. They dont sell mortgages/loans to anyone and keep them 100% in house. Its why even after moving to Germany I keep that bank for US assets. They just dont seem as criminally motivated as other banks.

That's good language to look for. I didn't check closely enough and my mortgage documents stated that the loan issuer (my bank) would service the loan, but without any guarantee of how long. They sold the loan shortly after issuing the mortgage.