Why I Built MyHelocRates.com — and Why I'm Not American
My name is Mike Lucas, and I live in the UK. A few years ago I wanted to renovate my home. Like most people, I started looking into how to fund it — and I fell down a very interesting rabbit hole.
I came across the concept of a Home Equity Line of Credit. HELOCs do exist in the UK, but they are complicated, restricted, and rarely used. So I did what most UK homeowners do: I took out a traditional fixed personal loan. I borrowed a set amount upfront — whether I used every penny or not — and started paying interest on the full sum from day one. No flexibility. No ability to draw what I needed, when I needed it. Just a fixed repayment, every month, on money I hadn't yet spent.
Then I discovered what US homeowners have access to: a line of credit secured against home equity, where you only pay interest on what you actually draw. I remember thinking — can you believe that? A loan where you only pay for what you use. In the UK, that kind of flexibility simply doesn't exist in any practical, accessible form for the average homeowner.
What struck me next was the research. A significant proportion of US homeowners — estimates suggest around 65% — are either unaware of HELOCs or don't fully understand how they work. Here is one of the most powerful personal finance tools available to American homeowners, sitting largely unused or misunderstood. I've always believed that financial literacy is something the system actively fails to teach us — it's not on school curriculums, and the information that does exist is often written to sell you something rather than educate you.
I'm not a financial advisor or a mortgage broker. What I am is someone with a genuine interest in personal finance, a habit of tracking global markets, and a frustration with the gap between what people are entitled to know and what they're actually told. I spent months researching HELOCs — reading Federal Reserve guidance, CFPB publications, lender rate sheets, and real borrower experiences — to understand this product properly from the outside.
MyHelocRates.com is what I built from that research. A free, independent, plain-English resource that explains HELOCs the way I wish someone had explained them to me — honestly, without jargon, and without trying to push you toward any particular lender or product. No sign-ups. No sales calls. No agenda beyond helping US homeowners understand a tool that many of them already have access to, but haven't yet had explained clearly.
If you're a US homeowner who's heard of HELOCs but isn't sure if they're right for you — this site was built for you.