February 29th, 2008 - HEL/OC for adoption
I looked at the credit union website again about loans, to check rates versus ING (where we have savings and CD accounts). On their online application form, it asks if you want a HEL or a line of credit. Hmmm…nowhere else are HELOCs mentioned. So I called. Talked to a nice lady named Sue. They don’t have HELOCs. Well, actually, they sort of do. They don’t offer one with check writing abilities, but you could get the loan and not take the money until you need it bit by bit. (IE, you walk into the office and say “I need $10,000″ and you get a MO or it moved to checking or whatever.) Oh, well, that would work for us.
Then I explained why we needed the loan and that it could be in two weeks or two years that we suddenly needed most of the money immediately. (Actually, you put down a deposit of $5000, I think, then most of the rest is due at placement. Unless you are matched with a baby who has already been born. Then almost all of the money is due right away since you are paying the matching and placement fees at once.) And her advice was to wait until we need the money and get the loan then. 2nd mortgages are kept in-house and their rates haven’t changed in ages (true–it’s about the same as when we got the one 16 months ago, actually a wee bit lower I think). They usually take less than a week to approve. And in an emergency, they could probably get us the money in a day. If I recall correctly, our last one was done in 3 days. Including my coming in on day 2 and saying, “Oh, wait, can we increase it that $3000?”
And they’ll go up to 95% of our home equity, unlike ING which only does 80%. If the adoption happens right away, that extra 10% could be very useful, since we’ll also need to replace my income as I have only about 22 days of paid leave.
I wonder why we never looked at a 1st mortgage with them?