Truist Mortgage Loan Review 2024

Truist can lend to customers in 47 states and Washington, D.C.; the exceptions being Alaska, Arizona and Hawaii. While it offers a variety of mortgage products, its interest rates tend to be higher than national averages. You can visit Truist’s website to see its current rates for common types of loans.

Loan Types

Truist offers the following types of mortgage:

• Conventional
• Fannie Mae HomeReady
• Fannie Mae 97 Loan-to-value (LTV)
• Freddie Mac Home Possible
• Freddie Mac HomeOne
• Jumbo
• FHA
• USDA
• VA
• Doctor loan
• Construction-to-permanent
• Rate-and-term refinance
• Cash-out refinance
• HELOC
• Community Homeownership Incentive Program (CHIP)

In addition to fixed-rate products, Truist also offers adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs). It does not offer home equity loans, however.

Loan Minimum

Truist has no specified minimum. This might be helpful if you’re looking for a small mortgage loan for a less expensive home, though you’ll need to check with Truist to see how little you might be able to borrow.

Loan Maximum

You can borrow up to $5 million on a jumbo loan with Truist. Keep in mind that while this is a relatively high limit, you might be able to take out an even larger loan with other lenders.

Loan Servicing

Unlike many other lenders, Truist services its own loans. This means your loan likely won’t be sold to a third party for servicing. You’ll make your payments and direct any questions directly to the bank.

While the exact criteria to qualify for a Truist mortgage will vary depending on the type of loan as well as your financial profile, here are the basic requirements to expect:

Minimum Credit Score

Truist’s minimum credit score requirements are:

• 620 for conventional loans
• 620 for FHA, USDA and VA loans
• 680 for jumbo loans

If you have a lower credit score than this, you’ll likely need to consider other lenders that offer mortgages for bad credit.

Minimum Down Payment

What you’ll need to put down on a Truist mortgage depends on the type of loan you want. Down payment requirements range from 3% to 20% for conventional and jumbo products, and 3.5% for an FHA loan. There are also zero-down-payment options available, including USDA, VA and doctor loans as well as mortgages through the CHIP program in some markets.

Maximum Debt-to-Income (DTI) Ratio

Along with your credit score and income, mortgage lenders will also consider your DTI ratio. This is the amount you owe in monthly debt payments compared to your income.
While Truist doesn’t disclose the maximum DTI ratio it accepts, you should generally aim for a DTI ratio no higher than 50% to qualify for a conventional mortgage—though there are also lenders that require lower ratios than this.

Truist isn’t entirely transparent with the fees it charges on its loans. A company spokesperson says that borrowers can expect to pay origination fees (amounts vary by applicant and loan type) and that Truist doesn’t assess prepayment penalties; however, you’ll have to check with the lender to see exactly what you might be charged.

Keep in mind that Truist offers rate discounts that could help to reduce your overall loan cost. These discounts for existing customers, automatic payments and some elements of affordable loan products like FHA loans. Additionally, borrowers can qualify for a $500 lender credit to put toward your closing costs.

If you decide to apply for a mortgage with Truist, you can do so online or at one of more than 2,500 branch locations.

Approval and Closing Timelines

Truist promises fast preapproval times within 10 to 15 minutes—though keep in mind that the formal approval process can’t be fully completed online. Instead, you’ll have to fill out a form with your personal information and wait to be contacted by a loan officer.

The average closing time on a purchase loan from Truist is 30 to 45 days while refinance loans can take up to 60 days.

While Truist provides affordable loan options, it’s still possible to have your application denied. If this happens, ask the lender what led to the denial to see what you might need to work on, such as building your credit or paying down debt.

You could also consider applying with a co-signer or co-borrower to increase your approval chances. However, keep in mind that this person would share responsibility for the loan, which is a lot to ask of someone—especially if they won’t be living in the home. You can use our mortgage calculator to see what you can reasonably afford on your own.

Also make sure to shop around and compare your options from as many mortgage lenders as possible. This can help you figure out which lenders you might qualify with as well as lock in a good rate. Note that submitting several mortgage applications within 45 days will have the same impact on your credit as submitting a single application, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Truist’s Better Business Bureau (BBB) consumer review rating is 1.1 out of 5.00 stars based on 2,006 reviews as of January 2023. The BBB has closed 1,971 complaints about the company in the last 12 months and 3,911 complaints in the last three years. Keep in mind that Truist provides a large variety of banking and lending products, so these reviews aren’t solely reflective of consumer feelings regarding the company’s mortgage offerings.

The BBB gives Truist an A+ rating, but this rating isn’t based on customer reviews. Instead, it reflects how the company responds to complaints, its time in business, size and other factors.

The CFPB has received 1,501 complaints regarding Truist’s mortgage services from January 2020 through January 2023. Most of these complaints were about having problems during the payment process while others were about issues paying a mortgage, during the application process or closing on a loan.

Note that the CFPB does not verify the accuracy of consumers’ complaints. Additionally, while these numbers might seem high, they don’t compare to the vast amount of customers that Truist serves in a wide array of areas, including mortgages.

Truist vs. Rocket Mortgage

Both Truist and Rocket Mortgage offer a variety of lending products, although neither currently offers home equity loans. Truist also offers some innovative loan products not found at Rocket Mortgage, such as its Doctor Loan, which allows doctors to finance up to 100% of their purchase price without paying for mortgage insurance.

You can borrow up to $5 million with Truist, compared to a $2.5 million cap on jumbo loans through Rocket Mortgage. Both companies have similar credit score requirements for their products.

While Truist does have physical locations, Rocket Mortgage is completely digital and offers loans in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

It’s difficult to compare fees because Truist does not disclose average costs. However, with Rocket Mortgage, expect to pay around $1,200 in origination fees.

Truist vs. Carrington Mortgage

Carrington Mortgage provides home loans to borrowers in much of the country, but it doesn’t offer loans in Massachusetts or North Dakota.

Both Carrington Mortgage and Truist offer a number of government-backed loans as well as their own lending products. For instance, Carrington Mortgage has a Carrington Prime Advantage loan that will finance up to $3.5 million on properties with as much as a 90% LTV ratio. Meanwhile, Truist offers jumbo loans of up to $5 million. Neither offers home equity products.

Credit score requirements differ between the two lenders. While Carrington Mortgage has some loan options for those with credit scores as low as 500, you’ll need a score of at least 620 for a Truist loan. Carrington will also extend mortgages to those with higher DTI ratios—in some cases exceeding 50%.

We graded Truist based on elements that have a meaningful impact on the cost of the mortgage; borrower eligibility requirements; the variety of loan options; and loan features that can impact the homebuying process. Our scoring method is based on the following categories:

• Interest rate: 20%
• Down payment requirements: 20%
• Credit score minimum requirements: 20%
• Alternative credit data considered: 10%
• Preapproval time: 10%
• Closing timelines: 10%
• Loan types: 10%
• Lender discounts offered: 5 bonus points

While there are certainly more features that lenders offer, we chose not to include these in our scoring in order to bring forward lenders that have the most competitive rates and are among the most accessible for borrowers of all financial backgrounds.

Our focus on affordability, accessibility, and key features that can impact the homebuying process (like preapproval time and closing timelines) is what we consider reflective of today’s consumer’s top priorities when comparison shopping for mortgage lenders.