What are mortgage penalties? How do I avoid them?

For some people, getting out of a mortgage early is a realistic option, especially if they are doing so to lock down low interest rates. It’s definitely a good idea to lock down a low rate, so if you are looking at facing mortgage penalties to do so, you can do a lot to limit those penalties or avoid them all together. Common practice has banks comparing your interest rate to their current interest rate for the term closest to the amount of time left on your mortgage. Since there’s no rule about which rate to use, they can use any rate they want. With…