How To Find The Right HELOC in Wyoming

Welcome back. My name is Denzel Rodriguez, your personal finance geek of the 21st century, and today we're discussing the home equity line of credit series where I go state by state, how to find the right home equity line of credit in your state, in the second position. Today we're covering the state of Wyoming. I'm gonna do a little refresher on the fundamentals, the framework, the blueprint of that you need to do in advance of applying at any particular bank when you're ready to get that home equity line of credit. So on the left-hand side of the board, you'll notice in this series this part doesn't change. The right part can change because I'm looking at different banks at the time of recording, and these banks, according to the interest rates that are, you know, posted prime rates, can alter the HELOC products, good or bad. All right, so as of today, as of this recording in July of 2026, prime interest rate is at 6.75%. The next Fed rate meeting, I think, is not till September. I'll have to double-check that. We have not seen a rate cut in the last 2 Fed meetings since, um, since I've been doing this recording. So These products are going to be, you know, valid and true for the next couple of months here unless rates come down. On the left-hand side here are all your action steps. Please, please, if you do this, you are setting yourself up for success and you are decreasing your chances of denial to near zero. Literally near zero. If you do every one of these steps, I am so confident you're not going to get a denial at any qualified bank with the right home equity line of credit in your state or even out of your state. If they, if that bank covers your state. So with that being said, I want to see your credit score across 3 bureaus, 720 or higher. I want your DTI below 30%, no more than 45%. The LTV, the amount of equity available in your home, you want to stick around the 70 to 90% range. The higher you go in LTV, the higher the rate will most likely be with that particular bank. So if you're doing 100% LTV, 95% LTV, 90% or higher, typically the banks will add an extra point, an extra, you know, margin to mitigate that risk that they're giving to you. There are situations where it might make sense and you're willing to take the cost, totally fine. I'm simply saying the best HELOC products are typically going to be within that 70 to 90% LTV range. Closing costs— this is a preference, not a deal breaker, but I prefer not to pay any closing costs, if any, very low, $500 or less, preferably. I absolutely want to have some sort of an intro rate anywhere from 6 to 12 months. There's some banks that will go upwards of 3 to 5 years. And in this current economy, in this current prime interest rate environment, we're seeing a lot of rates between 1.99% to 5.99% intro rates. In terms of the interest rate calculation, I want to see a prime 6.75% minus rate. Those are going to be your best HELOCs. That means no matter where prime is at, you're always at a prime minus something, minus 1%, minus 0.5%, minus 2.5%, 0.25%. As long as it's prime minus, you're really setting yourself up for success. If you're at a prime plus, that means they're adding a margin to that product that can save you a ton of money if you just pay attention to that. That'll save you a bunch of money so you can actually find these rates. The reason why I stress over this is the vast majority— this is not to, you know, put blame on anyone, it just is what it is from my own experience— the vast majority of Black people and Spanish people constantly make this mistake. They do not pay attention to how the rate is determined on any debt for that matter, whether it's credit cards, loans, you name it. Most Black and Spanish families are not paying any, any mind, any attention to this. So I'm bringing it to your attention. This is extremely important, especially for minority communities. If you want to recapture, rebuild, restore wealth in your community, it's little things like this, negotiating terms, that is going to accelerate wealth. In your family and for generations to come if they simply understand that one thing right there. Borrowing at prime minus rates opens the door that other cultures have been flirting with and using and negotiating with for years and years and years. Yet typically, predominantly Black and Spanish communities, it's flying right over your head. So please wake up to that. It's extremely important. Let's move on. The draw period, 10 to 20 years. Typically is what you will see. Anything below 10 years, keep in mind of whatever your goals are. So if your goal is to become completely debt-free and we're gonna be using a home equity line of credit to help with that, and let's say your debt-free projection is 7 years, 8 years is what you're projecting to be fully debt-free. Well, ideally, I probably don't want to get a home equity line of credit with a 5-year draw period. Now it's not the end of the world. You can always re-up the HELOC. You can always renew it. Obviously that will require some credit. The idea is by then your credit's going to be even better because you would have eliminated so much debt and your DTI would be down. So it's most likely not going to be an issue. Again, not a deal breaker if you do end up with a 5-year draw. I'm saying preferably I like 10 to 20 years. The next thing, this is critical, this is a must. In fact, it is a requirement for a lot of credit unions. You have to become a member first. I can't tell you how many people skip over this. They go to apply at the bank immediately, whether over the phone or online, and get denied because they're not a member. They don't have a relationship with you. So please, once you've decided what bank you want to go with, Talking to the people here that live in Wyoming, before you decide which bank you want to go with, don't apply. Open up a checking and savings. That's what's called building a relationship. You open up a checking and savings, you start to move some of your money over there, let it season, let it sit before actually applying. I like to wait 60 days, maybe even longer before I actually apply. Because remember, all these other things need to be met as well. Mobile banking is another factor. I don't want to get a HELOC where I can only do checks in terms of transferring money in and out. I can only write checks. No, I want a HELOC that gives me a credit card and/or mobile banking where I can literally log in. I can see my checking, I can see my HELOC, and I can make an instant transfer in and out of the home equity line of credit same day. That's important. If you don't have that, you're decreasing the speed at which money can move in and out of the HELOC. If I have to write checks all the time, that's just going to be very clumsy. In the 21st century, you don't want to be doing that. Lastly is the payment option. Not a deal breaker, just going over my preference. You have two options. There are interest-only HELOCs, and then there are principal and interest HELOCs. If you get a principal and interest HELOC, it is an extra layer of protection to just say that, all right, no matter what I do with my HELOC, when I borrow it, I'm forcing myself to pay back the principal balance. If you do an interest-only HELOC without proper discipline and understanding the strategy and understanding your goals and being aligned with your values and beliefs and all that stuff, and you just pay the interest-only payment on your HELOC with no strategy, no plan, You could be setting yourself up for future failure, right? Or becoming illiquid. So you don't want to do that. With that being said, that gives you the full refresher on the framework on how to find the right home equity line of credit, use the right parameters. Please do that. Please, please, please do that. And I'm going to keep stressing it over and over again in this series until it is seared into your brain. With that being said, the state of Wyoming, very scarce in terms of attractive banks in your state that offer attractive home equity line of credits. There's plenty of banks that do HELOCs in your state, but according to my research that I've done so far, I found 3 attractive banks, one called Meridian Trust Federal Credit Union, the County Federal Credit Union, and Founders Federal Credit Union. I'm going to share my screen and go through these banks so you can see what I see. Here we have Founders Federal Credit Union offering home equity line of credits with an interest rate as low as prime. It says it right there, 6.75%. It's mobile banking friendly, right? Online checking account, 24, you know, access. They do checks as well, but access your money through your checking account, right, or the online portal. That already for me is, is, is a win. And the rate being as low as 6.75%, they literally do not give too much information outside of that. As you can see, the Next bank, this one did not make it. This is just me showing that there are other banks that do it. And your reason why I didn't make it is right there. The interest rate is based off of prime and a margin. That's another bank that didn't make it, but just showing you that there are banks that do HELOCs. And if I'm narrowing it down to the best ones, these are the ones that I'm finding. So next is Meridian. Come right here, they have a fixed rate product for only 2 years at 6%, so that's 0.75% below prime for actually 9— for less than 95% LTV, which is pretty attractive. But it's only for 2 years. The variable rate HELOC, 120 months, we have an interest rate as low as prime minus 1%. So the rate could be as low as 5.75% today in 2026, as I'm recording this video, for less than 95% LTV. Or a max of just under $400 grand. Now, credit score does need to be high, 750 or above. So that exceeds my, my blueprint. So like I said, I want you at least 720 or higher. In this case, for this bank, you need to be 750 or higher. All right, no annual fee on this, just a $99 origination fee. There's probably some closing costs. With this, I would imagine. Uh, just doesn't give the full context there. This was another bank I found that offers a HELOC, but they didn't make it. Then we have Blue Federal Credit Union, also didn't make it, but another bank. And then We have the County— let me see where I found them. Yes, you got to scroll down a little bit in my Google search. Well, we have the County Federal Credit Union that is offering home equity line of credit at prime plus zero, so just prime. 6.75% with a floor of 3%. No application fee, 10-year draw, 80% LTV, home equity checks available for easy access. So now since they have this, they have checking accounts, and it says it right there, the mobile banking. That means they do checks but also We can access this money via mobile banking. So you're gonna wanna move your banking over to the bank that you get approved for your home equity line of credit for maximum performance of the strategy itself. Due to the fact that I only found 3 solid banks, if I had to put them in order, I'm going with Meridian simply because of the prime minus. 1%, and I'm willing to take the time to bring my scores up to 750 or higher to be qualified for that. Outside of that, then I'm between Founders and, and the county. So out of those 3, you really can't go wrong if you're in the state of Wyoming looking to not only just acquire a HELOC but also implement the Velocity strategies where we're going to be consolidating and moving debts into the line of credit to reduce your interest costs overall. And as it relates to the whole Velocity Banking strategy of depositing all your income into the HELOC, the most efficient way to do that is to open up a checking account, have your paychecks go to the bank that the HELOC is at so you can have that instant money in and out. Anything outside of that, you're decreasing efficiency. Not to say that it won't work, you're just adding extra steps, extra manual work that could be completely avoided. And with that being said, for financial coaching, one-on-one support, not just for this one strategy but your entire finances altogether and where you want to go, and click some of the links below, go to my website, see some of the services that I have, how we can work together. You can start with an initial consultation and we can build relationship from there. My name is Denzel Rodriguez, your personal finance geek of the 21st century. Have a wonderful day, God bless, and stay tuned for the next video in this series on how to find the right home equity line of credit. God bless.