HELOC that is a loan and a checking account

Sam12345 · March 9

My HELOC (Home Equity Loan) shows up as a loan in Quicken. In reality, the HELOC has the capacity for me to write checks. However, in Quicken it only acts as a "loan," it doesn't allow me to enter "checks."

Thank you!

jefmes · March 9

Just a random comment since I ran into this recently too - I re-added it as a credit card since that's its overall transactional behavior, and things seem to be working well.

UKR · March 10

@jefmes ,
thanks for commenting.
I was about to make the same suggestion:
Setup LOC or HELOC accounts with Type = Credit Card. That seems to work best.

While I was working at a bank in Germany, many years ago, they offered Checking accounts with a built-in Line of Credit. You could run your checking account "into the red" up to the limit of the LOC, without fees, bounced checks or having to make transfer transactions to cover the checking account's presumed overdraft. Until the next paycheck or deposit, for as many days as the account was in the red, the bank charged interest at the agreed-upon loan rate. When the account balance went positive again, you earned interest at an approved savings-like rate.
I do wonder why US banks don't offer the same convenience feature …

NotACPA · March 10

My family used to live in Italy. Friends of ours moved to the UK where the "mortgage" on their home was actually an overdraft on their checking account … which sounds like a similar concept to what @UKR reported about in Germany.

But, in response to his "wonder why", I strongly suspect that it has to do with US banking laws and our puritan heritage that frowns upon overdrafts.

Sam12345 · 11:15AM

Thank you all for the tips. Sounds like a good plan!

HELOC that is a loan and a checking account

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