Whois & Analysis for washingtonfederal.com

A home equity line of credit (often called HELOC and pronounced Hee-lock) is a loan in which the lender agrees to lend a maximum amount within an agreed period (called a term), where the collateral is the borrower's equity in his/her house (akin to a second mortgage).

Because a home often is a consumer's most valuable asset, many homeowners use home equity credit lines only for major items, such as education, home improvements, or medical bills, and choose not to use them for day-to-day expenses.

HELOC abuse is often cited as one cause of the subprime mortgage crisis.

A mortgage loan, also referred to as a mortgage, is used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate; or alternatively by existing property owners to raise funds for any purpose, while putting a lien on the property being mortgaged.

The loan is "secured" on the borrower's property.

This means that a legal mechanism is put in place which allows the lender to take possession and sell the secured property ("foreclosure" or "repossession") to pay off the loan in the event that the borrower defaults on the loan or otherwise fails to abide by its terms.

The word mortgage is derived from a "Law French" term used by English lawyers in the Middle Ages meaning "death pledge", and refers to the pledge ending (dying) when either the obligation is fulfilled or the property is taken through foreclosure.

A savings account is a deposit account held at a retail bank that pays interest but cannot be used directly as money in the narrow sense of a medium of exchange (for example, by writing a cheque).

These accounts let customers set aside a portion of their liquid assets while earning a monetary return.

In some jurisdictions, deposits in savings accounts do not incur reserve requirements.

A transaction account, checking account, current account or demand deposit account is a deposit account held at a bank or other financial institution.

It is available to the account owner "on demand" and is available for frequent and immediate access by the account owner or to others as the account owner may direct.

Access may be in a variety of ways, such as cash withdrawals, use of cheques and debit by electronic transfer.

In economic terms, the funds held in a transaction account are regarded as liquid funds and in accounting terms they are considered as cash.

A commercial bank is a type of financial institution that provides services such as accepting deposits, making business loans, and offering basic investment products.

Commercial bank can also refer to a bank, or a division of a large bank, which more specifically deals with deposit and loan services provided to corporations or large/middle-sized business - as opposed to individual members of the public/small business - retail banking, or merchant banks.