HOME EQUITY LOANS » HELOC

Banks all over America are in the business of offering home equity lines of credit, more commonly known as HELOC. They've been used by millions of American home owners to get to the kind of credit line they need.

Some of the biggest names in the HELOC game are:

• Wells Fargo Home Mortgage
• Countrywide
• Washington Mutual
• Chase Home Finance
• Bank of America
• CitiMortgage
• GMAC Residential Holdings
• AMRO Mortgage Group
• National City Mortgage
• PHH Mortgage
• Wachovia Corporation
• Holliday Fenoglio Fowler
• GMAC Residential Holdings
• CBRE | Melody
• NorthMarq Capital
• Sonnenblick-Goldman
• Q10 Capital
• CIBC World Markets
• IXIS Real Estate Capital
• Collateral Mortgage Capital

These financial institutions are well known amongst real estate agents and mortgage brokers who work in the refinancing world day in and day out. If you're looking for a home equity line of credit you could very easily come across these names and the names of thousands of other banks and financial institutions that offer HELOCs. As you move forward in your application process, you'll want to do as much research as you can on each one of them to be aware of their strengths and weaknesses, and above all - how they could help you.

It's also very important to be aware that the real estate market and the mortgage industry are at the epicenter of the current economic crisis. HELOCs may be pretty hard to come by these days, given that credit is drying up all over the country, if not the world. That's something to think about as you go forward.

Before you sign anything, make sure you go over all aspects of your application with a financial advisor. You need to know exactly what you're getting yourself into when you get a HELOC.

Home equity loans are frozen when banks and other financial institutions in the business of lending money stop lending out more money to protect from losses they might face, due to either subprime mortgage or any other high-risk loans. When this happens it is very hard for borrowers to get any money on their existing home equity loans. The biggest trigger for a freeze in home equity loans is a drop in the value of a borrowers home, regardless of his or her payment history.

Most home equity loans are essentially lines of credit, allowing you to borrow money against the value of your home, and then pay it back, and then borrow more again, until you hit the limit the bank has imposed on your loan. It's a lot like having a credit card. However, when a bank places a freeze on home equity loans, it means that you can't borrow any more money even if you're making all of your payments on time and have a flawless credit history. The bottom line is that in many cases a bank's lending freeze isn't about you or other individual borrowers, it's about the larger macroeconomic forces. Currently, the value of people's homes are plummeting all over the country due to the dramatic bust in the real estate market. So as the value of a home drops, the credit line limit that was originally extended to the homeowner is now a potential problem for the bank: the borrower's collateral is no longer worth what it once was, and that means the bank finds itself "out on a limb."

If your home equity loan has been frozen, don't panic. You can appeal to the bank on an individual basis. If you've got an excellent credit history and a steady, healthy income, you might get some relief. You can also consider refinancing your home equity loan at a lower rate. First and foremost, however, it's important that you go over all your options with a financial advisor or bank representative. When it comes to your money and financial future, you need to make sure you know exactly what you're doing.

Interest is calculated on a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) by using a major interest rate index, such as the prime rate, plus the lender's margin.

When you go shopping for a loan or line of credit , using your home as collateral, you might be tempted to get a HELOC, as opposed to a...