Using the calculator
Our calculator asks a few questions, one at a time: your home's address, a rough credit score range, what you still owe, your home's value and your work, then your email and, if you choose, your first name and phone number.
We save each answer as you give it, even if you don't finish, along with the page you're on and the link or ad that brought you to our site. If you type a valid email address, we save it right away, before you click “See my results.” Your results are shown on screen and emailed to you, and our team gets a copy so we can follow up.
We check your address with the U.S. Census Bureau's address service to see which providers serve your area.
If you use “Copy link to my results,” your numbers are stored in the link itself, so anyone you share it with can see them.
When you request a review or contact us
If you submit the review form or email us, we collect what you give us, which can include:
- Your name, email address, and phone number (phone is optional)
- Your state, where you are in the process, the provider you are considering, and your message
- The calculator scenario you ran, if you ran one: your home value, mortgage balance, cash needed, assumptions, and results
- Whether you asked to receive occasional updates
How we use it
- To review your situation and reply to your request
- To send you occasional updates about home equity investments, only if you opted in (you can unsubscribe any time)
- To keep records of requests and improve the site
- To prevent spam and abuse
Technical information
- Our hosting provider, Cloudflare, processes standard request data such as IP address and browser type to deliver and protect the site.
- When you submit a form, we store a one-way scrambled version of your IP address (not the address itself) to limit spam, along with your approximate country.
- We use your browser's session storage to carry your calculator scenario to the review form during your visit. It is cleared when you close the tab.
- We use Cloudflare Web Analytics, which counts visits without cookies, and Google Analytics, which uses cookies to show us how visitors use this site and our four sister sites (HEI Compare, HEI Facts, HEI Offers, and HEI Counseling), including when someone uses a tool or sends a request. We share that measurement with Google Ads so we can tell whether our ads lead to requests. You can opt out with Google's opt-out browser add-on or by blocking cookies in your browser.
- We use the Meta pixel (Facebook and Instagram) and the Google Ads tag, which use cookies to tell us whether our ads lead to visits and requests. When you get your results, they learn only that a request was made, not your answers, your home's details or your contact information.
- We also count, anonymously, when our tools are used (for example, “calculator used” or “form started”), by day and page. These counts include no cookies, IP addresses, or anything you type. When someone visits a page on any of our four sites, or uses a calculator, our team gets a short notice with the page, an approximate city (looked up at that moment, never stored with an IP address), and the site or link the visitor came from.
Who we share it with
When you click “See my results,” we may share your information with home equity investment providers and partners, who may contact you by email or phone about their offers. We may be paid when we connect you. Being paid never changes our results: providers are always sorted by the real cost for your home.
We only share the details of people who click “See my results.” Answers from people who stop before then are never shared.
We also use service providers to run the site: Cloudflare hosts the site, stores your answers and delivers our email notifications, and our email provider sends your results and handles our inbox.
To stop being contacted by us or our partners, or to have your information deleted, email hello@heicalculator.com.
How long we keep it
We keep review requests, and addresses entered in our calculators, as long as we need them to respond, improve our tools, and maintain our records. To ask what we have about you, or to have it deleted, email hello@heicalculator.com.
Children
This site is not intended for anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect information from minors.
Changes
If we update this policy, we will change the effective date above.
Contact
Privacy questions: hello@heicalculator.com.