Comments on: Nationwide Bank 3.25% HELOC

By: JF

JF — Fri, 22 May 2009 20:03:22 +0000

Here is my experience with Nationwide Bank.

What this doesn’t tell you is that it is not easy to qualify for their HELOC even if you have a SUPERIOR credit score and LOW LTV. The telephone call connects you with high power, financial sales people who would not give you any pertinent information such as Debt to Income requirement for it’s HELOC or any other relevant information to that matter. All they want you to do is “submit” an application and find out later!
I got suckered into it and at a cost of one Inquiry on my Credit Report, I found out that no matter how good your credit score is and no matter how low the LTV is, Nationwide requires a Bebt to Income ratio of 40% or less. What’s more, in calculating the debt monthly payment, they amortize the entire Line amount at a whopping rate of 1.5% a month ( i.e 18% per annum) ..even though they are offering the HELOC at a rate of 3.25%. So, the Loan officer hastily told me that my application was not approved. What a joke!!

Most lenders I talked to, go up to 50% Debt to income and calculate the debt payment at a rate of between 6% – 10% per annum, amortized over 20 years..depending on who you go with. But what’s important is that they readily made this information available before hand. So, the consumer can decide whether they want to go forward or not.

I wish someone had posted this kind of information here before I submitted my application to this lousy bank and it’s rude,abrupt and unfriendly Loan officers. However, the Sales people were quite polite but very pushy..I got the impression that part of their compensation is tied to how many applications they submit.

But what bothers me most is that they could have made this information to the consumer/applicant before hand.

The sales agent would, at best, give me a vague and evasive information and when pressed to transfer the call to a Loan officer, the latter not only was abrupt and angry and impatient but refused to give me that information.

By: Pete

Pete — Thu, 14 May 2009 06:37:33 +0000

Penfed has a great one if you can join the credit union. The best I have seen for CA is this one at Nationwide or Schwab.

By: JF

JF — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 22:45:08 +0000

1)Good rate. Although a couple of others are offering a better rate. e.g Third Federal savings bank is offering HELOC at Prime minus 0.25. No fees. But they dont conduct business in California.
So, if someone knows equally good rates or better, I would like you to Post it here whenever appropriate.

2) has anyone dealt with Nationwide on HELOC? If so, what is yuor experience?

By: RateRunner

RateRunner — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 21:37:49 +0000

Ian: You are right. Good catch. Thanks for sharing.

By: Ian

Ian — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 22:39:06 +0000

Actually, you can only borrow up to 80% of the value of your home, minus the balance of any prior liens. That means that if your home is worth $150,000 and you owe $100,000 in prior liens, you would be able to borrow $20,000 on your HELOC. ($150,000 x .80 = $120,000 – $100,000 = $20,000) The ad is a little confusing, but the footnote at the bottom reads (in part):

“Total line of credit not to exceed 80% of the appraised value of the property minus any existing mortgage balances.”