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PNC Bank mortgage review 2024

Updated 10 min read
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The Yahoo view: A good choice for borrowers, particularly on the East Coast, PNC Bank offers first-time home buyers grants, PMI-free loans, and medical professional loans.

PNC Bank has some in-depth tools for first-time home buyers, a competitive home equity line of credit — and some unique transparency with its mortgage rates. Two areas that could be improved: an easier guide to several specialty loan programs and a better customer service rating.

All in all, PNC scores well overall in Yahoo Finance's reviews of leading lenders.

PNC mortgage star rating

Key benefits

  • A PNC grant of up to $5,000 can be applied to closing costs or a down payment to income-eligible borrowers or those living in a qualified area.

  • PNC offers a Community Loan that allows a down payment as low as 3% with no private mortgage insurance.

  • A Medical Professional program provides loans up to $1 million with cash gifts allowed to fund a portion of the down payment. Private mortgage insurance is also waived.

Need to know

Dig deeper: First-time home buyer grants

PNC Bank offers these home loans:

  • Conventional loans

  • FHA loans

  • VA loans

  • USDA loans

  • Purchase mortgages

  • Refinance loans

  • Cash-out refinance loans

  • Fixed-rate mortgages

  • Adjustable-rate home loans

  • Jumbo loans

  • Lot loans

  • Construction loans

  • Renovation loans

  • Medical professional loans

  • HELOCs

PNC mortgage does not offer these home loans:

  • Interest-only mortgages

  • Guest house loans

  • Second home loans

  • Nonqualified mortgages

  • Investment property loans

  • Energy efficient mortgages

  • 1% down payment mortgages

  • Buydown loans

  • Bridge loans

  • Manufactured home mortgages

  • Piggy-back loans

  • ITIN mortgages

  • Home equity loans

Learn more: Types of mortgage loans

PNC takes a deep dive into buying a home for first-timers with its Home Insight Planner. Rather than a series of how-to articles and typical educational resources — which PNC has as well — this tool helps potential home buyers carefully consider their financial situation first.

The planner allows you to create a profile, build a basic budget, and even search for homes.

  1. In the first step, you input your income, credit score, plans for a down payment, and other basics.

  2. Next, you enter household expenses, loans, and other budget items. You can go into as much detail as you like, even including savings and retirement goals, if you wish. That helps give you a real-life idea of a mortgage payment you can afford, with not only the principal and interest payments calculated, but also insurance, taxes, and maintenance.

  3. Then, PNC offers a home search tool that matches the area you are interested in with available homes in your price range.

  4. Finally, you can download your profile summary, contact a loan officer, and get a loan preapproval.

It's a thoughtful, comprehensive way to think through the “how much house can I afford” process.

Learn more: First-time home buyer programs

PNC offers a home equity line of credit (HELOC), allowing the convenience — and possible interest savings — of drawing money from your home's equity only as needed.

Depending on where you live and how much you can borrow, there are a few moving parts to the maximum loan-to-value ratio (LTV), but generally, it's from 80% to 85% of your home's current market price estimate.

A one-time origination fee (for California and New York customers) is based on the amount of your loan balance as of your first monthly bill. You'll also pay a $50 annual fee.

You can choose a fixed or variable interest rate and even change your mind later. However, there is a $100 fee to switch.

Dig deeper: The differences between HELOCs and home equity loans

PNC home improvement loans are not a mortgage product but a personal loan. That means you're not putting your home up as collateral for the loan. However, because it is an unsecured installment loan, you will need to qualify based on your credit standing alone.

PNC Bank home improvement loans are available in amounts from $1,000 to $35,000 and have no prepayment penalties, no origination fees, and no application fees. The personal installment loan is only available in AL, AZ, CO, DC, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN, KY, MD, MI, MO, NC, NJ, NM, OH, PA, SC, TX, VA, WI, and WV. Certain restrictions apply for NY, CT, and TN.

Sample mortgage rates are available by entering a home's purchase price, your down payment, credit score range, the amount you need to borrow, and the ZIP code where the property is located. The form is not tied to a required contact with a representative. We like that.

Besides, providing even just a little information helps to make the sample rates a little closer to reality.

On the day we researched the site, the sample rates shown from our information were a 30- and 15-year fixed-rate and a 7-year adjustable-rate mortgage. You can click into two additional sections to see more rates, and there are links to FHA and VA mortgage rates.

The rate assumptions are clearly posted and in this instance required a debt-to-income ratio of 36%.

All are very nicely organized, well-presented, and easy to navigate.

Read more: How to get the lowest mortgage rates

Yahoo Finance uses 2023 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data comprised of 10 million home loan applications to score mortgage lenders on issued mortgage rates and total loan costs. We score each lender on a scale of 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest).

For example, with mortgage rates a lender with a lower score charged a higher-than-median mortgage interest rate for loans issued in 2023. A higher score would indicate a lender granted lower-than-median home loan interest rates to borrowers in 2023.

With total home loan costs, a lower score would indicate that a lender charged higher-than-median total home loan costs in 2023. A high rating would mean that a mortgage lender offered lower-than-median all-in home loan costs in 2023.

What this means: PNC offered a higher-than-median mortgage rate of 7.125% but a lower-than-median total loan cost of $5,026.24 to borrowers in 2023.

Many lenders use third-party solutions on their websites for the application process. The PNC mortgage application is just that, online software using one of the largest white-label providers of digital loan tools. You can import financial information, including salary and bank accounts, and track your loan application as it moves through underwriting.

However, you can't just zip through a PNC online mortgage application and get an instant mortgage preapproval. After you complete the initial portion of the application, you'll need to contact a loan officer to finish it up and see if you qualify.

You can also apply by calling a PNC loan specialist or scheduling a callback at your convenience.

PNC has a helpful mortgage application section on its website called "What to expect: From application through closing." The guide includes the documents required, how you will be notified about a loan decision and other details of the home loan process.

To gain preapproval, you will have to provide financial information and work with a PNC mortgage loan officer to submit your application. You should also expect to do the following:

  • Verify your loan income and financial assets.

  • Provide additional financial information as requested.

  • Receive a Loan Estimate three business days after the application is received.

  • If an appraisal is required, it must be completed prior to final approval.

  • Your PNC home loan officer will contact you by phone or email to notify you of the application decision.

Dig deeper: How to get a mortgage in 2024

In addition to the Home Insight Planner mentioned up top, PNC has a Mortgage Scenario Builder so you can compare mortgage options. The tool requires you to create a profile with your name, address, and email, so we didn't try it out.

PNC also has a few calculators to choose from, including:

  • Home affordability

  • Mortgage payments

  • Fixed- vs. adjustable-rate comparison

  • Discount points

  • Down payment

  • Extra payments

  • Closing costs

  • Home refinancing savings

  • Refinancing costs

Read more: See Yahoo Finance's list of the best FHA lenders

  • PNC mortgage earns a high rating (5 stars) in our Affordability category for offering a wide range of home loan solutions.

  • PNC Bank home loans also have an excellent score (4 stars) for offering lower-than-median total loan costs to borrowers, according to 2023 HMDA data.

  • Offering an ample resource of web-based borrower educational material earns PNC Bank mortgage 4 stars in our Online Features category.

  • PNC mortgage earns Yahoo Finance's lowest rating (1 star) for offering higher-than-median home loan rates.

  • PNC Bank home loans get a 3-star score for Mortgage Rate Transparency. That's just average. While you can get a sense of the loan interest rate you might earn, you cannot get a home loan interest estimate with adjustable discount points — or, better yet, with no discount points.

PNC offers construction loans, but Chase Home Lending doesn't. However, Chase offers second-home and investment-property financing.

PNC offers home equity lines of credit, while Chase doesn't. Yet, Chase offers a $5,000 closing guarantee in as little as three weeks.

The right lender for you depends on your particular needs.

That's the power of comparison shopping lenders. And you don't have to do all of the homework. Applying with multiple lenders can help surface your best loan offer.

Chase mortgage review

Both banks offer closing costs and down payment assistance. PNC Bank has grants up to $5,000 to eligible borrowers in qualified areas. Bank of America mortgages take the benefit up a notch with grants of up to $7,500 towards closing costs and $10,000 for down payment assistance for qualified buyers.

Perhaps most importantly, Bank of America and PNC are on opposite sides of the customer satisfaction scale. BofA ranks near the top of J.D. Power's 2023 Satisfaction Study, while PNC lingers near the bottom.

Bank of America mortgage review

PNC Bank and Wells Fargo are well known on opposite ends of the country. PNC is a noted home loan lender on the East Coast, while Wells Fargo mortgages have a long history of serving the West Coast.

However, PNC mortgages have a service profile of lending to both bank customers and borrowers without a PNC banking relationship. Wells Fargo mortgage recently decided to primarily serve only bank customers.

PNC Bank mortgages also offer home equity lines of credit while Wells Fargo currently doesn't offer any second mortgage options.

Wells Fargo mortgage review

What is the 800 number for PNC?

The number for PNC mortgage customer service is (800) 822-5626.

What does PNC stand for?

PNC resulted from the 1983 merger of two Pennsylvania banks: Pittburgh National Corporation and Provident National Corporation. Today's PNC Financial Services Group is a publicly traded company using the stock ticker PNC.

How do I find a local PNC mortgage loan officer?

You can use this tool to search for a PNC home loan officer in your area.

Methodology:

Yahoo Finance reviews and scores mortgage lenders with quintile scoring in five primary categories: 1) Interest rates. Using 2023 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data comprised of 10 million home loan applications, we score mortgage lenders on issued mortgage rates below or above the annual median of reporting lenders. 2) Affordability. A measure of loan product availability and the willingness of a lender to offer government-backed loans, low down payments, down payment assistance, and consideration of nontraditional credit. 3) Loan costs. HMDA data is again analyzed, and lenders are rated based on total loan costs compared to the annual median. 4) Rate transparency. The ability of a website user to obtain a mortgage interest rate estimate. We score lenders based on whether rates are enhanced with discount points or high credit score requirements, disclaimers revealing rate assumptions, sample advertised rates, and whether adjustable or no discount point rate estimates are available. 5) Online features. An analysis of the educational material, calculators, and additional resources available to users.

Review of Nationwide Multistate Licensing System (NMLS) data on regulatory actions can trigger a penalty to the score of any lender with a consumer mortgage-related administrative or enforcement action within the past five years.

Advertisers or sponsorships do not influence ratings.

Editorial disclosure for mortgages:

The information in this article has not been reviewed or approved by any advertiser. The details on financial products, including interest rates and fees, are accurate as of the publish date. All products or services are presented without warranty. Check the lender's website for the most current information. This site doesn't include all currently available offers.