How To Find The Right HELOC in Vermont

We're in the state of Vermont. If you're watching. We're covering home equity line of credit in the second position. Home equity line of credit in the second position. Vermont came to play. They came to compete, which is awesome. We like that. I found you four banks in the state of Vermont. And in this series, this video is part of a bigger series. We're going state by state, covering every bank in America. On the left hand side of the board is our framework that you need to know that you need to do in advance, that you need to be aware of this. And then on the right hand side of the board, this information can change over time. But for now, in 2025, as I'm recording this live, I found you. Vermont Federal Credit Union, North Community Credit Union Bank, North County Community Credit Union, Heritage Family Credit Union, and Credit Union of Vermont. These are four solid banks we're going to dive into. I've got research that I've done already in advance and that is going to basically show you how I do my research and it's going to help you become more efficient. Before I was saying, as my mic was off, I was sharing how I typically avoid working with the bigger banks because their product often isn't as effective or attractive as these smaller banks. So that's why we really go with these smaller banks. But most of you never look at the smaller credit unions because all of the marketing dollars are spent by the bigger banks. So they're showing up on page one of Google. All you got to do is just scroll down just a little bit or maybe even go to page two and you will find the best banks. So with that being said, let me show you my research. This is what I type in all the time. I'll say credit unions in the state, boom. That you're, that you live in, that offer a home equity line of credit. Okay, I scroll down, I skip the sponsors. I come right here and I will look up these banks. If I don't find anything attractive there, I keep scrolling, keep scrolling, right? And I might even go to like page two of Google and see what other banks I can find that are in the state of Vermont. So I did go to page two. I clicked on this one and you know, we got this Northern Lights Credit Union. I haven't looked at them yet. This national bank of Middlebury. Just going to put them over here at the back. We'll look at them later. Let me show you the research I've done so far. This is Vermont Federal Credit Union. They offer a home equity Line of credit, we can draw funds as needed. So that's mobile banking friendly, fast approval, access to online, access to your money. Online convenience checks. Minimum credit line is 15k primary residence only. Don't get confused between fixed rate home equity loan and then home equity line. You're focusing on home equity line specifically for the strategy that we teach. Okay, very important. This paragraph down here reveals most of the information that we would want to know. If we're on a website and we're not able to get the details, that's where you would need to call to get that answers. Because sometimes banks just don't share what their incentives are. And that's okay, you just need a call. Just you know, requires a little more work but we'll get there. So here we have APR rate is tied to prime lending. Wall street journal as all HELOCs are for the most part. We have an 80% LTV and it says prime minus point five percent. We like that. Now if you were to do a 90% LTV product, you're not going to get that prime minus. You're going to be at a prime plus 1.5%. So I encourage stick to the 80. Saves you a ton of money. Right. So prime is at 7.25. You would be at 6.75% in 2025. That is extremely attractive in today's interest rate environment. There's a lot of debts people are carrying at double digit rates or high single digits, you know, eight, nine, nine and a half percent that by consolidating it to prime minus saves thousands of dollars. Very attractive. Now this HELOC does come with closing costs could be as low as 2, $219 to as high as $1500. It says depending on the need for an appraisal, additional members may be required to pay for title examination. So that's like third party fees. Investment properties are ineligible. And we keep reading right. Need to be a member, it's important. That's part of our framework. Now here's where it gets even more attractive. On top of having a prime minus rate, they're offering a 3.99% promo fix for the first 12 months and then after the promotional period is done, it could be as low as prime minus 0.5%. Not bad. 80% LTV. And then again going with that closing cost with needing to be a member. That's extremely attractive. So this bank totally made it to the whiteboard. Let's move right along. We have North Country. Oh, I put County. All right, so I spelled that wrong. So let me fix myself here. So it's North Country Community Credit Union and we have what they call a reloc, a real estate line of credit. In other words, that's a home equity line of credit. Same thing, prime minus 0.5%. Very attractive. Same thing, 80% LTV. But the closing cost is cheaper. All right, closing cost is cheaper. But there is no intro rate period. There's no indication that this product offers an intro rate. We can come over to the main area real estate line of credit and this is a website, perfect example where they just don't share too much information. Okay, but we know it's prime minus 0.5%. So just because of that makes it the whiteboard. And the fact that it has low, low closing costs, not bad at all. Next bank is Heritage Family Credit Union. We have a two year intro rate. Ladies and gentlemen, you live in the state of Vermont. You want to pay close attention. It's not every day that we see a two year intro rate for 5.75% could be as low as 5.75%. That is nearly two points below prime. That is not bad at all. So 1.25% below. No, 1.5% below prime. Not bad. In addition, no closing costs. So you mean to tell me I can get this product with Heritage, potentially lock in a 5.75% rate for two years in a declining interest rate environment? This is very unique timing for those that are coming across velocity banking for the first time. For those of you that are trying to accelerate debt and you have a home and you have equity, you could potentially get a 5.75 rate for the next two years fixed. You can consolidate a bunch of credit card debts, personal loans, car loans, student loans, knock off a lot of things in two years. And then if rates come down to like six and a half percent, let's say, well, guess what? Your rate would be at six and a half percent because it's goes after to just prime says after your promotion rate ends, your rate will then change to a variable rate linked to Wall Street Journal prime for the remainder of the loan term and can go as low as 4%. So that's their floor, 4%. If prime is at 6.5%, you're going to be at 6.5%. So it's not a prime plus or prime minus. It's just prime. We don't know what the draw period is. Is it didn't explicitly say that? Oh no, I think it actually did somewhere. Let me see. Yeah. Boom. So we got a nice 10 year draw with a 5 year repayment plan. So that's great. That's heritage. Here is a another bank that's part of my research. It didn't make it to the whiteboard because there was literally. There's literally no information. Says low interest rates but doesn't reveal what. Okay. The only thing I know is that it's a five year draw. Don't love that. It's a little bit short of a timeline. So I'm just going to skip over that bank for now. But that's White River Credit Union. Just showing you all of the research that I've done. Next bank is Credit Union of Vermont. Check this out. Home equity line of credit fixed for 18 months nearly two years at 5.49%. Then it goes to prime flat 80% LTV. I don't know what the draw period is. It wasn't as clear, didn't exactly tell me. But what is also very interesting, and this is not part of this series, this will be another series that we do. But on credit cards. Credit cards can be a great secondary tool that enhances your home equity line of credit's results. What do I mean by that? So when you're using a home equity line of credit for velocity banking debt acceleration, instead of pulling your income immediately back out of the HELOC to pay your bills, you could float the vast majority of your expenses on a credit card and then pull from your HELOC 20, 25 days later to pay your credit card off in full. And then you get sometimes points, cash back rewards, things like that. But ultimately you're saving money on interest every single month because you're not being charged interest inside the heloc. And then you're paying less interest inside the HELOC because more money stayed in the line of credit. All right, now this is not something you see every day that a Visa credit card has a rate as low as 10.9%. It says no balance transfer fee and no annual fee. So that's quite attractive where it's okay, if I get my HELOC down, then I'm going to want to find a pretty solid credit card that matches up right with it. So I just wanted to share that with you. I'm going to do a whole series on credit cards as well. Next is 802 Credit Union in Vermont. Just showing you my research. They did not make it to the whiteboard simply because I wasn't able to pull very much information other than it's 80% LTV minimum loan amount 5k. And then all this. This bank definitely wouldn't make it on the board. Why? It's prime plus 0.75%. So I'd be at an 8% HELOC. So that is definitely a no. No. Then we have national bank of Middlebury. Let's see, let's see if they make it to the whiteboard. I haven't, I haven't looked at this bank yet. Says no draw fee, annual fee or early closure fee. 70, 80% LTV. Max credit line 400,000. That's the first bank we've seen that reveals what their max credit line is. Save 0.25% on interest by using autopay. So there's a auto pay reduction in the rate. Let's see if they reveal to us what the rate is. Minimum credit line 20,000. We have a 10 year draw. Let's see what other information can pull. Home equity Flex revolving line of credit 400,000, 10 year maximum APR. What you go to Wall Street Journal. Prime rate. Oh nice. So it's just prime. So it's just prime. No annual fe, no draw fee. So we don't know if there's closing costs. And for, for now we'll, we'll keep them off the whiteboard. The only thing they got going for them is that 0.2, you know. No, no, let's put it on the whiteboard. Because with that auto pay, it puts them at a prime minus. So whenever we find banks that does prime minus, it almost always can make it to the whiteboard because that's a big value add for Denzel. Honestly, that's middle berry. So we got prime minus 0.25% with auto pay. So contingent on it being auto pay. The other thing it has going for them is that unlike these banks, we don't know the information on it, but the max credit line is 400,000 at this bank and there's no annual fee. Mobile banking friendly 10 year draw. That's nice as well. Closing costs? We don't know. We don't know. Let's get into top picks. This is a tough one, guys. For those of you that are present in the house, I would like your opinion based on the facts stated between these five banks. Which bank? Just based on the details that we have, which bank would you go with? Would you choose a long intro rate, 2 years, 5.75%, 10 year draw with no closing cost but then it goes to just prime or do you go with a prime minus 0.5% with. Let's say Vermont prime minus 0.5. So you're at 6.75% out the gate. But then you get this 3.99% for 12 months. So not two years. You get one year at 3.99%. Then it goes to 6.75. But you have to pay closing costs and it could be high, could be 1500 bucks. What do you do? This is tough when you do a little bit of process of elimination. Okay, we have two banks that are at prime. We have two banks that are at prime minus 0.5% and we have one bank that's at prime minus 0.25%. No intro. And then we have three banks that have an intro rate a 5.49 for 18, 5.75 for two years, 3.99 for 12 months. Benjamin, awaken. Anybody else? Listen. Which bank do you choose? Let me get your thoughts. What do you think? And then those catching the recording also let me know what your, what your thought is. What's your opinion? What bank do we go with here? I'm going to wait and then I'm going to share what I'm thinking because honestly this is, this is extremely hard. There's, there's so much competition in the state of Vermont with these four banks. Really hard to decide who to go with. Very hard. So I know it takes a few seconds, but I'm gonna wait for a comment or two. Let me know what bank, what bank are you thinking? And then like I said for the state of Vermont, I'm going to re upload this video because the audio was out for like the first 10, 13 minutes. So to make your watching experience much better, we're gonna fix that. Let me get one comment. What do you guys think? Which bank are you going with? Which bank do you like the most? A part of me wants to go with Heritage Family Credit Union because has such a long intro rate. 5.75 for two years plus no closing. But then it jumps back to prime. The other part of me really enjoys the prime minus. So there were some in this series, there were some other states that we did where it helped us decide how to choose between the different incentives. And it's going to come down to what your current situation is. So we're going to segment these options by short term thinking and long term thinking. So I'm just going to put short and long for each bank between Vermont and North country is long term thinking with Heritage Family Credit Union and Credit Union of Vermont is more short term. It's not necessarily in this context, it's not bad to think long or to think short. It's not about good or bad, what's better. It's ultimately what is most in alignment with your current situation, your current financial situation. Say for example, you're somebody with a lot of high interest credit card debt or negative cash flow or high debt payments, which is either putting you in a low zero or negative cash flow position. And on top of that you're probably paying high interest. These three factors, you're going to lean more toward these two banks, Heritage Family Credit Union and Credit Union of Vermont. And then to the side between the two is mainly going to be the rate that you get and the extension of time. So Heritage gives you an extra five months at 5.75, whereas you get 18 months with this bank. So I'm sorry, six extra months. Right. So 18 plus 6 24. Right, yeah. So you get an extra six months at 5.75 with no closing costs. Then you have 5.49% for 18 months. Also no closing costs. Now a key detail here with Credit Union of Vermont is the rate changes semi annually. So this is kind of low key, short and long, where you're not going to have as much fluctuation. Like most HELOCs, your rate's only going to change twice per year. That does create stability for a long term approach to getting out of debt. If it's going to take us multiple years. But if it's purely like I need relief and you're trying to recapture, reduce your high debt payments as much as possible, you're going to lean heavily toward Credit Union of Vermont or maybe even Vermont Vermont Federal at that 3.99. The only difference is if, is if the amount of debt that you're carrying is a high amount and you're going to need more time to clear those debts out. So you're probably going to lean more toward Heritage Family or Credit Union of Vermont. You might land more toward Credit Union Vermont just for that extra 5.49. Or if you have a high amount of debt and you know it's going to take you longer than two years to knock everything out, then you're going to choose heritage at 5.75 for two years, no closing cost, then it goes to Prime. Two years from now, most likely will be less than 7.25%. Okay. Now if you're thinking more long term and you're like, I'm doing okay right now, Denzel, I, I'm just looking to add a little more efficiency then out of these Two banks, Vermont is the better option because although the closing cost is higher, even if it was at $1500, I'm still at that prime minus 0.5 and I get the 3.99 for 12 months. So what I pay in closing costs, I'm going to make up for it in those first 12 months at that 3.99 rate versus with North Country. I start off at prime minus 0.5. I still have some closing costs, a few hundred dollars, so it's not as high as 15, but it's no more than 325. You don't get that promo rate of the 3.99. So my top pick for the long term perspective, it's going to be Vermont for me, my number two pick. I really like the idea of having the 5.75 for two years, no closing costs. I really like that. And I'm willing to give up that small difference of the 0.49 to have six more months at 5.75. So heritage is my number two. If I was in a situation where I had a lot of high interest credit card debt, potentially at a negative cash flow, low cash flow, high debt payments, then I'm. My number one is going to be heritage for me. All right. And then number three, you can flirt with Credit Union of Vermont or north country, so. Or the North Country. Okay, those are my top picks. State of Vermont came to play. We love that. It's very competitive. Key details, key action steps. Here is make sure you do the pregame work. Stay close to this series. Watch my playlist as well on how to do the velocity banking pregame work or I renamed it as Velocity of Money pregame work because it encompasses all things around your personal finances. How, what lenses we could be looking through before we implement a strategy. It's like, how do we get set up? Like what are these like non negotiable standards that we should have with our finances? Then you proceed. Okay, so you want to get your pregame work set up, you want to get your action items complete before you apply. Then let's say you did all the action items, you did the pregame work, you found the bank you want to work with, you're about to apply. It is so worth jumping on a consultation with me or someone in this space to get a second set of eyes on the bank that you're looking to apply with. Because what if you did find a bank in Vermont and it wasn't any of these banks and the bank you're looking at was prime plus 0.25% and you spend $300 or more in coaching. You get on a call with me and I find you a prime minus 0.5% with a 3.99% interest rate for 12 months. How much is that worth alone? How much money am I going to save you just by having that piece of knowledge right there? Then we talk about the strategy. Hey, what debt strategically are you going to put into that line of credit first? And what if you thought you were going to do this one and this debt? And then I'm like, well, it makes more sense from a cash flow perspective to do this, this and this. And an interest rate perspective. You do this first, then you jump this debt here later on the tail end of that intro rate after it jumps to this rate. I mean we're talking thousands of dollars you could be saving so highly recommend coaching. You can go to my website, Denzel Rodriguez.com and book a call. Let's figure out how I can serve you at the highest level. For those of you that are trying to find the right debt tool for your personal finances to accelerate debt and or create cash flow, accumulate wealth and get closer and closer to financial independence and freedom. Lastly, I'm going to take this video down just because the first 13 minutes was no sound, no audio. And I'm going to re upload it with clean editing for the state of Vermont to make that watching experience much better. Okay? So my editor is going to have some fun with that. Thank you all. God bless. Enjoy the rest of your day and I will be seeing you next week and we'll start back up. So far I think we've done about 15 plus states, so we're getting there. We're almost there. All right, enjoy the rest of your day, everyone. God bless. Talk soon.