- Rocket Mortgage is positioning home equity as an alternative to high credit card debt in its latest campaign.
- The new commercial, which began running earlier this week, depicts a woman overwhelmed by credit card alerts and the mounting debt they represent.
- The company will supplement the campaign with a Reddit AMA on August 14 (National Financial Awareness Day) to answer consumers’ questions about debt.
According to Rocket Mortgage, U.S. consumers collectively carry roughly $1.25 trillion in credit card debt. Comparatively, Americans hold about $17.6 trillion in home equity. At the same time, the average credit card interest rate is 21%, while home equity loan rates are typically half that or less.
“The truth of high-interest debt is something your credit card company doesn’t want you to hear: the longer it takes to pay it off, the more money they make,” said Jonathan Mildenhall, Chief Marketing Officer at Rocket, in a statement. “We want to tell America’s homeowners they have a way out. The equity they’ve built can break the cycle and potentially save them thousands of dollars.”
The new commercial depicts a woman in her kitchen making a birthday cake for her daughter. As her phone alerts come in, she becomes increasingly distracted by the notifications that depict $18,000 in credit card debt, a 21% interest rate and $321 paid in interest alone. “With a Rocket Mortgage home equity loan, you can wipe out high-interest credit card debt,” says a voiceover, “and make a fresh start so you can get back to making memories.” As the voiceover concludes, the woman’s daughter comes into the kitchen, praising the cake, but wondering what it is supposed to represent. Its design is less than flattering.
Along with the commercial and the AMA session, Rocket Mortgage will release research later this year illustrating the financial and physical impacts of high-interest debt and share stories of people who used their home equity to break the cycle of debt.
