HELOC rates for Good to Excellent scores

[Anonymous]

We plan to apply for a HELOC this month to begin home repairs. FICO 08's = me 820, DH 720. I have a preapproval through DCU for up to 50K at 5%, but we probably have about 100K equity. Home was purchased pre-marriage so I am not on the deed or loan. (Assuming I would need to do the former before securing the HELOC.)

Do banks typically use the the lowest score for HELOCs? Are there other CU/banks I should be looking at for a lower rate? I'm wondering if we can do better than 5%.

[JVille]

I am not a Fan of Big Banks and generally I say run as fast as you can BUT.....
Unless there has been a recent change the Key Bank HELOC Program is fabulous and very flexible. You can have an Interest only pmt for 15 yrs (maybe it’s 10 😬) you have multiple options a year to lock a segment of your Used Line into an interest rate and make P & I pmts in a portion or your acct or all. Too many flexible options to list. No fees either.
Anyway check it out, it was my second choice as I didn’t know how bad things would get at Chase that was a waste of over 60 days. Not to mention an appraisal coming in $300,000 low!
Looked into Key and it was such a better program.

[Anonymous]

Key sounds like it's got some great options. I was thinking a credit union would be most likely for us. I wish there was a way to know what's a "good" rate right now. I'm not in the mood to do lots of applying. We each only have one inquiry at the moment, but DH plans to app for a couple of new cards this month as well. His file is on the cusp so we need it to take no hits while we work on this project.

Anyone know if HELOCs generally average the credit scores of couples or if they just take the lowest like mortgages?

[JVille]

I do not believe the Credit Union can afford to offer the kind of terms Key can. But as long as the CU has no fees why don’t you make application on both at the same time. I can likely guarantee the CU Customer Service and process will likely be a nicer experience but that the Key Bank product because of the ability to make Interest only pmts on the outstanding balance or lock it is going to be far superior.
My current rate on my HELOC is 5.5% we have scores in the 750 me and hubby 850.
Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Thanks so much for the rate info! I wish I could get my DH's score up, but every year or so he likes to make a late payment and blow his credit...

[Revelate]

You basically will just need to look around at a bunch of places as HELOC's are all over the map as a product.  There's nothing like mortgages in terms of what scores they use or how they UW the application.

DCU was the best APR I found when I picked up my HELOC a few years ago, it's shifted now to 5% as you've seen for their top tier rate (interestingly DCU was underwriting that rate at a 675 EQ FICO 5 back then and might be the same now not that it applies to you).

The 5.5% posted earlier isn't a bad rate I'm guessing as most of the rate changes have moved in lockstep with the Fed for DCU and everyone else, and if you need more than the 50K DCU has approved you for then check around... DCU was the cheapest for me by a large margin, more than the half a percentage point difference now but YMMV in the current market heh.