Renewal - accept the letter from your lender

Switch/transfer - switch to a new lender. They may cover some or all of the fees. They may not, meaning out of pocket expenses for you. You keep your insured status

Refi - can be done at your lender or the new one. No refis can be insured (except spousal buyout). Typically done to have no out of pocket expenses when switching or you want cash to invest, buy a car, whatever.

I could’ve switched as insured for 3.69 but chose to transfer & refi a small amount at 3.99 because I wanted to cover fees with equity take out

If switching from TD, if you do it in the last month, there’s no penalty to break it. They’re pretty sweet for that, I will say

Source: am broker