Citizens Bank: Home Equity Review 2026

Affordability: 1 star

• APR: Citizens doesn’t disclose its APRs on the website. To get a personalized rate offer, you’ll need to provide your address, contact information and other details. At the time of this review, the rate the lender provided to us was higher than the national average HELOC rate.
• Draw minimum: Citizens offers a 10-year borrowing period with no minimum draw requirement.
• Fees: While Citizens Bank doesn’t charge application fees, closing costs or prepayment penalties on HELOCs, it does charge late fees, as well as a $50 annual fee after the first year. Its GoalBuilder HELOC doesn’t come with an annual fee.

A higher-than-average interest rate at the time of this review, combined with a lack of transparency about APRs, and the annual fee, results in Citizens scoring a 1 out of 5 rating on affordability.

Availability: 4 stars 

• Loan products: Citizens has two HELOC products, aimed at different target groups.
• Where to find: Citizens HELOCs are available in 29 states plus Washington, D.C.: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia and Vermont and Washington D.C.
• Credit score: Citizens doesn’t disclose its minimum credit score requirements.
• Loan minimum: With Citizens GoalBuilder HELOC, you can take out as little as $5,000 — quite modest, compared to most five-figure HELOC minimums. Its standard HELOC requires that you take out at least $17,500, still lower than some other lenders.

Citizens earns a 4 out of 5 on availability because of its two distinct HELOC options, low loan minimums and the fact that it’s accessible in a majority of U.S. states. 

Borrower experience: 4.1 stars

• Rate transparency: While Citizens doesn’t post interest rates on its website, the lender boasts that it takes just two to three minutes to find out what you can qualify for, with no impact on your credit score. 
• Convenience: Borrowers can apply for a Citizens HELOC on the phone, online or in a branch. If you submit an online application and qualify for a loan, a home loan originator will contact you to discuss the next steps in the process. 
• Customer service: Citizens has a dedicated home equity phone number and offers telephone support seven days a week. When we called, it took less than 30 seconds to reach a home equity loan specialist, who was able to answer our questions about qualifying for a HELOC through Citizens.

Citizens scores 4.1 out of 5 due to their speed and breadth of its customer support and application options.

Citizens Bank ranked third for customer satisfaction in J.D. Power’s 2025 mortgage origination satisfaction study. The lender is accredited by the Better Business Bureau and has an A+ rating from the organization. It has a 1.2-star rating, characterized as “bad,” from Trustpilot, based on 723 reviews as of this writing.