In Northeastern Pennsylvania, if you’re thinking about getting a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC), there’s a cool feature you should know about. After you get your HELOC, you can choose to set a fixed interest rate for some or all of the money you borrow. This means you can lock in a rate that won’t change for up to 20 years, even if other interest rates go up.

You can decide to do this at any time while you’re still able to draw money from your HELOC, which is before you start paying it back. You’re allowed three of these fixed-rate locks, but each one has to be for at least $10,000.

Plus, as you pay back what you’ve locked in at the fixed rate, your HELOC credit line goes back up, and you can use it again.

Your monthly payments for these fixed-rate parts will include both the money you borrowed and the interest. This fixed interest rate is different from any special starting rate your HELOC might have and will be determined by your loan amount, how long you’ll have the loan and your credit score. This setup is a great way to keep your payments predictable and manageable, especially here in NEPA.