The Yahoo vision: Truist is a competitive mortgage lender for first-time homebuyers, offering down payment and lender assistance for eligible borrowers. However, it scores below average in customer satisfaction.
Truist is a study in contrasts, excelling in some areas and disappointing in others. The home equity line of credit is easy to apply for, but only available to customers in about half the country.
It sets the standard for displaying mortgage rates with or without discount points, but then falls short in revealing the credit approval qualifications on which the interest rates are based.
Still, Truist deserves to be considered in your choices of potential mortgage lenders and mortgage refinancing providers.
Dig deeper: How Down Payment Assistance Works
Main benefits
Need to know
Visit Truist’s mortgage website to get started.
Truist mortgage offers the following types of home loans:
Truist mortgage does not offer the following types of home loans:
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Interest-only mortgages
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Lots of loans
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Loans for boarding houses
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Second home loans
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Non-Qualified Mortgages
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Loans in investment properties
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Energy-efficient mortgages
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Renovation loans
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Mortgages with a 1% down payment
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Purchase loans
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Bridging loans
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Manufactured Mortgages
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Piggyback Loans
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ITIN Mortgages
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Mortgage loans
Dig deeper: How mortgage loans for doctors can help medical professionals buy a home
We couldn’t find a page dedicated to first-time homebuyers, but Truist has an “Affordable Lending Options” tab that’s a good place to start. The “Buy a House” selection under the “Personal Mortgage” link sends you to a page with an up-top splash promoting loans with 3% down payment, so that works too.
Truist uses a simple layout, combined with logical principles, to guide you through the learning process.
We especially like the ‘Homebuyer’s guide’, which promises to help you ‘See what awaits you in 10 minutes’. The two downloadable PDFs will help you think about the home buying process and how to apply for and take out a mortgage.
One guide is 25 pages long, the other 18. It’s probably a lot more than a 10 minute read.
More information: First-time home buyer: what you need to know
If you’ve owned your home for a while and don’t plan to sell, you may want to unlock some of the property’s built-up value. A cash-out refinance is one option, unless you have a low mortgage rate that you don’t want to let go of.
In that case, a second mortgage may be the best option. In Truist’s case, a second mortgage comes in the form of a home equity line of credit.
With an application that takes “less than 15 minutes to complete” and a closing date within 30 to 35 days after the paperwork is received, a Truist home equity line of credit seems simple enough.
However, a Truist HELOC is only available in less than half of the US states.
Payments can be structured with interest rates only, variable interest rates, or fixed interest rates.
Truist discusses HELOC fees using sample interest rates and without offering anything too specific. “Other fees may apply at origination, closing or post-closing ranging from $0 to $10,000 and may vary by state.”
See what we mean? Not many details.
Dig deeper: What is a home equity line of credit and how does a HELOC work?
This is one of the best mortgage rate pages we’ve seen. The reason? At the very top of the page, you can choose whether your estimated rate includes one discount point – or zero points. Smart. Very smart.
When shopping with lenders, we recommend asking for zero discount points on every loan estimate. This way you compare similar offers. You can always decide to buy points later if you wish.
Truist shows rates for a handful of mortgage terms – literally five. That’s enough to get an idea of where the rates lie.
The disclaimers for these advertised rates are at the bottom of the page, but don’t really reveal much. You selected the points, so that’s a given. However, we couldn’t find any mention of a credit score, debt-to-income ratio, or even the down payment used to formulate interest rates.
Without you knowing it, these rates aren’t very helpful.
Read more: How to get the lowest mortgage interest rate
Yahoo Finance uses Home Mortgage Disclosure Act 2023 data from 10 million home loan applications to rate mortgage lenders on mortgage rates provided and total loan costs. We score each lender on a scale from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest).
For example, when it comes to mortgage interest, a lender can use a lower score charged one mortgage interest rate that is higher than the average mortgage interest rate for loans issued in 2023. A higher score would indicate that a lender has granted this home loan interest rates that are lower than the average interest rate in 2023.
For total home loan costs, a lower score would indicate that a lender charged higher total home loan costs than the median in 2023. A high rating would mean that a mortgage lender offered lower total home loan costs than the median in 2023.
What this means: Truist mortgage offered a mortgage interest rate that was lower than the average mortgage interest rate 6.6% and a lower than average total loan cost of $5,119.33 to borrowers in 2023.
Two buttons on the Personal Mortgage home screen offer the choice of ‘get pre-approved’ or ‘apply now’. We thought the pre-approval process would start right from the first choice – that’s not what we found.
For pre-approval – an essential first step these days – that button takes you to a contact form. You also have the option of calling a Truist mortgage advisor to get things started.
When you’re ready to submit an official application, you’ll find a completely online experience. Truist uses the online loan application service that many lenders use. You can get a personalized interest estimate, upload documents and check the progress of your application.
Dig deeper: How do you get a mortgage in 2025?
There’s a home affordability calculator linked halfway down the “Personal Mortgage” page, and a mortgage payment calculator at the bottom. Other calculators and resources are scattered throughout the site and a bit difficult to find.
A ‘Money and Mindset’ page is about more than just buying a house: it’s a broad guide to personal finance, but still worth a look.
More information: How much house can you afford? Use Yahoo’s home affordability calculator.
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Truist is one of Yahoo Finance’s highest-rated lenders. One reason is the broad and deep loan offering. We give it a 5 in our Affordability category.
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It is also a strong competitor when it comes to mortgage rates and overall loan costs. It gets 4 out of 5 stars in both categories.
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We give Truist 4 stars for interest rate transparency. We like the ability to reduce discount points to zero; However, the lack of disclosure of interest rates, including debt-to-income ratio, credit score and down payment, is disappointing.
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Truist offers an average library of educational resources and some home loan calculators.
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And for a mortgage provider that we rate so highly, Truist really stumbles when it comes to customer service. It ranks at the bottom of JD Power’s customer satisfaction survey.
Truist offers low or no down payments to eligible borrowers in select areas, plus lender credits and no mortgage insurance.
PNC Bank has a community loan program that offers as little as 3% down payment, with no PMI. PNC also has grants of up to $5,000 that can be applied toward closing costs or the down payment.
Both Truist and PNC have attractive loan programs for medical professionals. Putting lenders in a head-to-head competition for your business can yield benefits you haven’t discovered before.
Mortgage Appraisal by PNC Bank
If you want to release some of your home equity, Truist has an easy-to-apply home equity line of credit. Unfortunately, it is only available in less than half of the US states.
It took us a while to figure it out, but New American Funding also has HELOCs and home equity loans — and they’re available in most states.
New Mortgage Rating from American Funding
Truist mortgage representatives can be reached by calling (844) 710-3909 or (855) 257-4040. You can also schedule an appointment using this form. Or find the location of a mortgage professional by using the form at the middle of this page.
Truist says a credit score of at least 620 to 640 is typically required for “traditional” mortgages, including FHA, VA and USDA loans.
No. Truist Financial Corporation is a bank with more than $500 billion in assets, headquartered in Charlotte, NC. She serves 17 states plus Washington, DC
Methodology:
Yahoo Finance rates and rates mortgage lenders with a quintile score in five main categories: 1) Interest rates. Based on data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act 2023, consisting of 10 million home loan applications, we score mortgage lenders on mortgage interest rates provided below or above the annual median of reporting lenders. 2) Affordability. A measure of the availability of loan products and a lender’s willingness to offer government-backed loans, low down payments, down payment assistance, and consideration of non-traditional credit. 3) Loan costs. HMDA data is reanalyzed and lenders are rated based on total loan costs compared to the annual median. 4) Rate transparency. The ability of a website user to obtain a mortgage interest rate estimate. We evaluate lenders based on whether rates have been increased by discount points or high credit score requirements, disclaimers disclosing rate assumptions, view advertised rates, and whether or not customizable discount point estimates are available. 5) Online features. An analysis of the educational materials, calculators and additional resources available to users.
Review of Nationwide Multistate Licensing System (NMLS) data on regulatory actions could result in a penalty on the score of any lender that has taken a consumer mortgage-related administrative or enforcement action within the past five years.
Advertisers or sponsorships have no influence on the ratings.
Editorial Disclosure for Mortgages:
The information in this article has not been reviewed or approved by any advertiser. Details of financial products, including interest rates and fees, are accurate as of the date of publication. All products or services are offered without warranty. Check the lender’s website for the most current information. This site does not contain all currently available offers.
This article was edited by Laura Grace Tarpley.
