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Fifth Third Bank Home Equity Loans Review
By Susan Doktor MONEY RESEARCH COLLECTIVE
While Fifth Third Bank isn’t among our top picks for the best home equity loan lenders, it is a solid regional bank and well worth considering if you happen to live in one of the 11 states the company serves.
J.D. Powers consistently ranks Fifth Third Bank among the top ten retail banks in the regions where the company operates. And financial rating organizations like Moody’s and Fitch also predict a stable outlook for the bank — an important distinction when you’re considering a decision as serious as having a lien on your home.
Table of contents
- Fifth Third Bank Home Equity Overview
- Fifth Third Bank’s Services
- Fifth Third Bank’s Credentials
- Fifth Third Bank’s Accessibility
- Fifth Third Bank’s Customer Satisfaction
- Fifth Third Bank FAQs
- How We Evaluated Fifth Third Bank Home Equity Loans
- Summary of Sacbee’s Fifth Third Bank Review
Fifth Third Bank home equity overview
Fifth Third offers borrowers who want to access the equity in their homes three ways to do so: traditional cash-out refinance, home equity loans and the Fifth Third Equity Flexline®, which combines features of a home equity loan and a home equity line of credit (HELOC).
You can borrow between $10,000 and $500,00 with a Fifth Third’s HELOC. The loan term is 30 years: a ten-year draw period and a 20-year repayment period. And home equity lines of credit with Fifth Third Bank have no closing costs, but typically include upfront fees.
Fifth Third’s HELOC also offers a low introductory rate of 2.99%. After six months, your rate will change to somewhere in the range of 4.22% to 11.5%. However, for a fee of $95, you can lock in a rate at any time during the draw period.
Different fees apply if your property is a condominium, multi-unit, or non-owner-occupied building. For example, you may have to pay a fee of up to $600 to your Homeowner’s Association for completing a Condominium Questionnaire.
Fifth Third Bank’s services
Fifth Third is a full-featured financial services company offering a wide range of products, including checking and savings accounts, retirement and investment accounts, credit cards, mortgage loans for homebuyers and homeowners, auto loans and more. In 2021, the bank posted over $16 billion in residential mortgage originations.
What’s offered
- Fixed-rate lump sum home equity loans
- Variable-rate HELOCs
- Optional rate lock with a Fifth Third Equity Flexline®
- Cash-out refinance
- Cash-in refinance
What’s not offered
- Cryptocurrency-collateralized mortgages
Fifth Third Bank’s credentials
Fifth Third Banks is a century-old institution that is appropriately licensed and registered in the states where it does business. The company earns high ratings from third-party organizations that rate banks for financial stability.
Licenses and registrations
Fifth Third Bank is licensed to do business in 11 states across the midwest and southeast regions. It is registered with the National Mortgage Licensing System (NMLS) under the number 403245. The bank is a member, FDIC. Fifth Third Securities, the investment services arm of the company, holds FINRA membership as well.
Third-party ratings
Fifth Third Bank earned a “Stable” rating from Moody’s when it was most recently evaluated by the organization in July of 2021. Similarly, in a 2021 report, Standard and Poor’s assigned Fifth Third Bank a “Stable” financial overlook. And Fitch gave the company an “A- Stable” rating in May of 2021 for the fourth year in a row.
Regulatory or legal actions
Over the past 3 years, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) reports 195 complaints against Fifth Third Bank in the mortgage category. That sounds like a pretty significant number, but seen in context, it represents a ratio of less than two out of every 1,000 complaints filed with the CFPB.
Additionally, only 11 of those complaints involved HELOCs. A large majority of them focused on the mortgage application process, which, in Fifth Third Bank’s case, cannot be completed online.
Fifth Third Bank’s accessibility
Fifth Third Bank does not publish a Spanish version of its website. However, if you call customer service, Spanish-speaking representatives are available to help.
The company doesn’t offer special services for the hearing impaired either. Customers with disabilities may be better served by visiting one of Fifth Third Bank’s branch offices.
Availability
Fifth Third Bank National Association is a personal and commercial banking and lending institution headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. Presently, the bank operates in 11 states:
- Ohio
- Florida
- Georgia
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Kentucky
- Michigan
- North Carolina
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- West Virginia
You can also make transactions at more than 50,000 fee-free ATMs nationwide. Depending on the type of transaction, fees may apply at other ATM locations.
Contact information
Fifth Third Bank’s customer service representatives are available Monday through Friday between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. and Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. through 4:00 p.m.
You can reach the bank’s dedicated toll-free home loan line by dialing 866-351-5353. You can also message the bank online or by using its mobile app, or write to the Fifth Third Bank headquarters at 38 Fountain Square Plaza, Cincinnati, Ohio 45263.
User experience
Fifth Third has an easy-to-navigate website that offers greater interest rate transparency than some sites we have reviewed. Fifth Third also has a home equity loan and HELOC payment calculator on its website to help borrowers estimate what their monthly payments will be and compare a range of loan scenarios. The type of loan and interest rates you’ll be offered will largely depend on your credit score and loan amount.
Limitations
Fifth Third Bank does not offer as wide a range of online educational resources as some lenders, but the company emphasizes personal service.
You can’t apply for a loan directly from the Fifth Third website, but you can get the process started by answering a few questions. You’ll then be contacted by a loan officer who will answer any questions you might have and help you complete the loan application process if you decide to move forward.
Fifth Third Bank’s customer satisfaction
Fifth Third Bank doesn’t have the best reputation among consumers. The majority of negative reviews cite poor customer service as a detracting characteristic of the bank. However, negative reviews about the company generally didn’t refer to the bank’s home equity products and services.
Customer complaints
In addition to the complaints filed against Fifth Third Bank through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, we found that consumers registered other complaints and filed negative reviews of the company on both the Better Business Bureau website and Trustpilot.com.
While the BBB awards the bank an A+ rating, consumers countered that opinion with their own rating of just 1.09 out of 5 stars. Customers reviewing the company on Trustpilot echo that negative sentiment, awarding Fifth Third Bank 2.1 out of 5 stars. However, that rating is based on just 41 reviews and doesn’t qualify as a representative sample, in our opinion, given the vast number of customers the bank serves. Additionally, only a couple of reviews on Trustpilot mentioned home loans or refinancing.
We did note, however, that many complainants cited inadequate customer service as the basis for their poor ratings of the company. Customers were frustrated, for example, by lengthy phone trees, spending hours on hold and having difficulty reaching “the right person” to solve their problems.
Third-party ratings
According to the most recent J.D. Power Customer Satisfaction Survey of the retail banking industry, Fifth Third Bank ranks in the top ten in several regions and individual states where it does business. Notably, in the state of Florida, the company earned the number two slot, but in most regions, it hovered in the mid-to-bottom of the top 10 range.
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How we evaluated Fifth Third Bank’s home equity loans
Homeowners who wish to turn the equity they have in their homes into cash appreciate having options. Some may be looking for a large, lump sum of money to initiate a significant home improvement. Others expect to have smaller expenses over a longer period and don’t want to pay interest on money they’re not using.
So we looked for financial institutions that had refinancing products to meet homeowners’ varied needs. We considered third-party ratings to evaluate the financial strength of the banks we reviewed. And we appraised customer experience factors such as each financial institution’s application process, customer service options, rate transparency and the availability of educational resources.
Summary of Fifth Third Bank’s review
Fifth Third Bank offers borrowers the full spectrum of refinancing options. The company earns high ratings for stability and financial strength from the most prominent financial rating organizations.
The lender also gives borrowers the flexibility to visit with a banker in person at more than a thousand local branches or transact business online or via its mobile app. You can also reach the company via its social media pages.
Overall, Fifth Third Bank is a company you can count on to be there to meet your immediate needs and, equally importantly, for the long haul.
