The banking industry may be in turmoil and the housing market in the tank but consumers looking or home equity lines of credit are actually more satisfied today. The J.D. Power and Associates 2008 Home Equity Line/Loan Origination Study^SM finds that overall customer satisfaction is actually up 14 points in 2008, to 780 on a 1,000 point scale. There's an explanation for that counter-intuitive finding.

With troubles in the housing and mortgage lending markets constantly in the headlines, consumers expect the worst when the go to the bank for a home equity loan or line of credit. When they find that service measures such as the average length of time for application approval origination process have held steady, they're relieved _ and consequently, more satisfied.

Now in its third year, the study measures customer satisfaction with home equity lenders. We found that there are five areas where strong lender performance is critical to satisfying customers. These indicators include:

• Approving applications and providing customers with access to their funds quickly


• Setting and meeting expectations during the application approval process


• Avoiding surprising the customer during the origination process


• Being versatile and flexible in the location of the closing


• Being mindful of the pitfalls of using a mortgage broker.

For qualified borrowers, this can be a good time to consider approaching the bank, but if you credit isn't excellent, you may have difficulty getting a loan approved.

Doing your homework can pay off. When you're shopping for a home equity loan or line of credit lender, closing costs and price-including interest rates and fees-are particularly important considerations. Here are tips that may help you homeowners obtain a better deal.

• Contact several lenders and allow them to compete for your business


• Make sure you completely understand the terms of their loan before signing the closing papers. If anything is unclear or unexpected, you have the right to receive an explanation, as well as to re-negotiate the terms or to walk away


• Consider working with your existing lender. You may be able to consolidate multiple accounts, as well as negotiate for-and obtain-a competitive interest rate.

The top lenders in customer satisfaction for Home Equity Lines of Credit/Loan Origination perform strongly. Here's the list:

• Bank of America ranks highest in satisfying customers who recently obtained a home equity product, receiving an overall index score of 811 and performing particularly well in the application/approval process factor


• SunTrust (809) performs particularly well in the loan officer/representative or banker factor


• Wachovia (807) performs particularly well in the closing factor

For more information, view our ratings or read our press release.