Who to go to for a HELOC: five places compared
Your own bank, a lender's app, a marketplace, a local loan officer or a home equity agent: what each one means for your phone number, your paperwork and your credit score.
The short answer
There are five kinds of places to go for a HELOC: your own bank, a lender's own app or AI, a comparison marketplace, a local loan officer or mortgage broker, and a home equity agent like Alauda.
The table below compares them on seven questions about the process, not on rates. Where we found no public source for a cell, we left it blank.
Once you know where to go, How to compare HELOCs without handing your number to a list of lenders covers who receives your details at each step.
Five places, seven questions
| Your own bank (example: Chase) | A lender's own app or AI (Rocket, Better, SoFi, and Alauda partner Figure) | A comparison marketplace (LendingTree) | A local loan officer or mortgage broker | A home equity agent (Alauda) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who it works for: who pays it, and whose products it recommends | Chase lends its own HELOC.1 | Rocket, Better and Figure, an Alauda partner, each quote their own loan.2,3,4 SoFi lends directly or brokers your loan to Spring EQ, and is paid a fee when it brokers.5 | LendingTree is not a lender. It is paid by the companies listed on its site, and that can affect the order they appear in.6 | Homeowners never pay Alauda. We're paid by the lenders we work with. Every comparison shows who pays us, and who pays us never changes the ranking. | |
| Who gets your phone number | Giving Chase your mobile number consents to marketing calls and texts from Chase and its agent.7 | Submitting Rocket's contact form gives Rocket Mortgage consent to call and text you for marketing, including automated calls, even if your number is on a do-not-call list.8 | LendingTree matches you with up to five lenders, and those lenders may call you.6 Its terms also let LendingTree itself and real estate companies in its network contact you, and you opt out of each lender separately.9 | You enter contact details in a secure form on Alauda's page. We do not hand your number to a list of lenders. Nothing goes to a lender until you approve it, and you see who receives it first. | |
| How many lenders you see | One: Chase.1 | One: the lender behind the app.2,3,4 At SoFi, SoFi itself or Spring EQ.5 | Up to five lenders from its network.6 | HELOCs, home equity loans, home equity investments and reverse mortgages, side by side. Rates shown for banks and credit unions are advertised rates, not offers. Only a HELOC is applied for. | |
| How many times you upload documents | Rocket's Home Equity Loan requires full documentation of income and assets.2 Better asks you to upload documents to your Better online account.3 | You send a formal application to the lender you pick.6 | You upload the documents a lender asks for to Alauda. No document goes to the lender until you approve it. | ||
| Who follows up after you apply | Chase assigns a Home Lending Advisor.1 | Rocket connects you with a Home Loan Expert.2 SoFi pairs you with a SoFi Mortgage Loan Officer.5 Better uses an AI voice assistant, Betsy, alongside its loan officers.10 | The lender you apply to handles the loan from there.6 | Alauda handles the paperwork and follow-up for your HELOC application, by email. The lender makes every credit decision. | |
| Effect on your credit score while comparing | SoFi checks rates with a soft credit pull and uses a hard pull if you continue.5 Better says starting its HELOC application won't affect your credit score.3 Rocket asks you to pick a credit range before contact details, and says a home equity loan may involve a hard credit inquiry.8,11 | Comparing on LendingTree may use a soft credit check; applying with a lender may use a hard one.9 | Alauda doesn't pull your credit report, so comparing options won't affect your credit score. The lender checks credit only after you approve sending your application. | ||
| Whether an AI agent can hand off to it | Better's ChatGPT app is a tool for lenders and loan officers, not for homeowners.12 | LendingTree has a ChatGPT app for mortgage and refinance rates that sends you to LendingTree.com for offers.13 | Access for AI assistants is limited and by invitation today. |
Seeing a local loan officer or mortgage broker? Ask them the seven questions in this table.
A note on Rocket. Rocket Mortgage's retail channel does not currently offer HELOCs; it offers a Home Equity Loan.14 The Rocket entries above describe that loan's application.
For a closer look at one company, see Alauda vs Rocket, Alauda vs LendingTree, Alauda vs SoFi and Alauda vs Credit Karma.
Your own bank: the Chase example
Chase lends its own HELOC, so you deal with one lender.1 Its online HELOC application asks for your name, date of birth, Social Security number and contact details on its first screen.7 Giving Chase your mobile number consents to marketing calls and texts from Chase and its agent.7 Chase assigns a Home Lending Advisor.1
Figure, an Alauda partner
Questions homeowners ask
Why not just ask ChatGPT or another AI assistant to do it?
Three things a home equity agent like Alauda does for you:
- Knowing where to go. Alauda compares HELOCs, home equity loans, home equity investments and reverse mortgages side by side, including whether to wait, and every comparison shows who pays us.
- Going straight into the partner lender's flow. Only a HELOC is applied for, and a licensed partner files it with the lender. You see who receives your application and what it contains before you approve, and nothing goes to a lender until you do.
- Following up after you apply. Alauda handles the paperwork and follow-up for your HELOC by email, and no document goes to the lender until you approve it.
Will this check my credit?
Alauda doesn't pull your credit report, so comparing options won't affect your credit score. A lender checks your credit only later, if you approve sending them your application. It runs a soft check first, and a full credit report, which may affect your score, if you continue.
Will I get calls?
We do not hand your number to a list of lenders. Nothing goes to a lender until you say so, and you see who receives it and what it contains before you approve. Alauda's own follow-up comes by email. What a lender already received stays with them.
Who pays Alauda?
Homeowners never pay Alauda. We're paid by the lenders we work with. Every comparison shows who pays us, and who pays us never changes the ranking.