Home Equity Loans are a scam!

[PHPaul]

Essentially, you're mortgaging your home which is okay, but by the time you pay appraisal costs, loan origination fees, closing costs etc. ad nauseum, you wind up borrowing money to pay for borrowing money.

I need $13K to have my roof replaced. I started the paperwork for a home equity loan to cover it, and found out that I'd actually NET around $10K, be nearly $1K out of pocket for non-covered fees and wind up paying back over $16K in 5 years.

Fuck that.

I'll take the money out of my IRA and the tax hit will be way cheaper than the loan.

Assholes.

[Red Dave]

We have had several Home Equity Lines of Credit (HELOC) over the years. Couple times to buy vehicles, another time to finance college for the youngest. I don't remember having that many fees to pay for any of them. Something doesn't sound right.

Of course, it's been some years ago now, and we used a credit union not a bank, so things might be different nowadays.

[PHPaul]

I did a home equity loan for debt consolidation back in the mid or late 90's and I don't remember putting up with ANY of that bullshit.

I was shocked when I read the disclosure forms and saw all the fees. Not to mention the 7-point-something interest rate...

Oh, and this was Navy Federal Credit Union. I wouldn't even consider going to a bank. It would probably make the credit union look like a good deal.

[Red Dave]

I guess that times have changed, but not for the better as far as the borrower is concerned.

I once applied for and was approved for a $50,000 HELOC over the phone, while sitting in my office at work. Took about 15 minutes. No fees, no appraisals. Got it through Schwab from the company that is now Rocket Mortgage. It was before the big recession back in '07. Don't remember the interest rate. Crazy isn't it?

Never used a dime of it, never spent a nickel in interest. Closed it out after I retired, figured we were done with big expenditures.

[Jim_in_RP]

Fuck that.
Assholes.

You got that right Paul.
I believe all those mortgage type peoples, including credit unions, banks, savings and loans.
They are all a bunch of damn loan sharks how else do you figure they can build those great big 200 story buildings in the big cities and then go bankrupt and have your tax money bail the bastards out.
The last dealing with the last house we had in Alaska was through the Alaska USA Federal Credit Union. They lied to us telling us that the builder owner was an upfront, honest businessman when he really was a lying ass crook and a shitty builder. We lost about $70,000/$80,000 on that house. Our credit rating went from AAA to ZZZ overnight. Fortunately, I had enough money left over after dealing with those crooks to pay cash for this house in the Philippines. The house here cost less than what a down payment on a house in Alaska would be, and we moved here without having to pay rent. In the last 14 years we've been here I've only borrowed money for three brand new cars. The first car was Marlenes. The second vehicle was my truck. The third vehicle was a replacement for Marlene's first vehicle. All three vehicle were financed locally. The first was financed at a local bank and we paid it off 14 months early. The second vehicle was my truck and we paid it off 12 months early. Her latest vehicle was paid off 10 months early. My truck and her last vehicle was finance by the local dealer. Not a financial institution, and we actually got a much better interest rate.
What did I learn from all this shit? Just because they're a big ass financial organization don't mean they are not fucking lying ass crooks! I was one of their members for 35 years, and they decided to treat me as a mark, for their rip off practices.
Alaska USA Federal Credit Union is the third largest credit union in the United States. I consider them nothing more than a bunch of goddamn crooks.
Mark Twain was certainly right about lies and cats!