First, the fact most comparison pages still get wrong: EnerBank USA no longer exists as a standalone company. Regions Bank closed its acquisition of EnerBank in October 2021 (per the Regions Financial press release) and has since folded it completely into Regions Home Improvement Financing. Visit enerbank.com today and you land on a Regions page. The loan products survived the rebrand, so the comparison still matters, but you are now weighing Hearth against a program run inside a roughly $150 billion regional bank, not against an independent specialty lender.
The short verdict: Hearth wins for most small and mid-sized contractors because of its flat subscription (starting at $1,499 per year), its 550 FICO floor across roughly 18 lending partners, and the fact that anyone can sign up. Regions Home Improvement Financing wins for established firms doing $500,000 or more in annual residential sales that need a true 0% APR loan to close storm restoration and other high-anxiety jobs.
Key takeaways
- EnerBank was acquired by Regions Bank in October 2021 and now operates as Regions Home Improvement Financing; the old enerbank.com domain redirects to Regions.
- Hearth charges a flat annual subscription (Essentials $1,499, Pro $1,799, Elite $4,999, plus a one-time $99 setup fee as of 2026) with zero per-job dealer fees.
- Regions charges no subscription but applies a dealer fee per funded loan; third-party analyses in 2026 estimate zero-interest promotions can cost contractors 20% or more of the job.
- Regions' contractor program has real entry requirements: 3+ years in business, $500,000+ in annual residential sales, and a $5,000 minimum average job, per its 2024 program fact sheet.
- Hearth accepts homeowner FICO scores down to 550 with loans from $1,000 to $250,000; Regions issues credit decisions in minutes but underwrites as a single bank.
Quick verdict by scenario
Choose Hearth if you run a small or growing contracting business, finance a steady volume of projects, or serve homeowners across a wide credit range. The flat fee means your cost is capped no matter how many jobs fund, and the multi-lender model catches approvals a single bank would decline.
Choose Regions Home Improvement Financing if you are an established company that clears its eligibility bar and you sell in situations where a genuine 0% APR loan closes deals: storm restoration, emergency replacements, and big-ticket remodels for payment-sensitive homeowners. You will pay a steep dealer fee for that closing tool, but on the right jobs it earns its keep.
Hearth vs Regions Home Improvement Financing at a glance
| Feature | Hearth | Regions Home Improvement Financing (formerly EnerBank) |
|---|---|---|
| Model | Marketplace of ~18 lending partners | Single direct bank lender (Regions Bank) |
| Contractor cost | Flat subscription, $1,499 to $4,999/yr + $99 setup | No subscription; dealer fee per funded loan |
| True 0% APR loan | Depends on lender offers | Yes, Zero Interest Loan with equal monthly payments |
| Loan amounts | $1,000 to $250,000 | Varies by loan product |
| Homeowner FICO floor | 550 | Not published; bank underwriting |
| Contractor eligibility | Open to essentially any contractor | 3+ years in business, $500,000+ annual sales, $5,000 avg job |
| Credit decision speed | Prequalified offers in minutes, soft pull | Decisions often within minutes, per Regions |
| Bundled business tools | Quotes, contracts, payments (Pro and up) | No; financing plus a relationship manager |
Business model: marketplace vs direct bank lender
Hearth operates a lending marketplace. A homeowner fills out one application with a soft credit pull and sees personalized offers from Hearth's network of roughly 18 lending partners, with loans from $1,000 to $250,000, rates starting near 7.99% APR, and terms from 2 to 12 years, according to Hearth's own site. Hearth is not the lender; it is the matchmaking layer, which is why it can serve credit profiles a single bank cannot.
Regions Home Improvement Financing is the opposite: one bank, one underwriting standard, one balance sheet. The program has funded nearly a million home improvement projects over two decades, per Regions' contractor pages, and homeowners apply by mobile app, online form, or phone with a decision often returned within minutes. The single-lender model gives you consistency and a dedicated relationship manager, but no fallback when Regions declines a borrower.
Winner: Hearth, because redundancy across many lenders converts more of your pipeline than one underwriter can.
What happened to EnerBank matters for your paperwork
EnerBank's absorption into Regions is complete, not cosmetic. The Salt Lake City lender kept its name for a transition period after the October 2021 acquisition, then rebranded fully; today its old domain, contractor portals, and marketing all carry the Regions name. For contractors this means your dealer agreement, funding, and compliance now run through a bank holding company with about $150 billion in assets (2023 figures via Regions Financial reporting), one of the 20 largest banks in the US, though not top 10 as older articles claim.
The products carried over. The Zero Interest Loan, Same-As-Cash loans, and reduced APR options (2.99%, 4.99%, and 6.99% fixed APR tiers appear in program materials) all still exist under the Regions banner. If your sales team still says "EnerBank" at the kitchen table, homeowners will not find that brand when they search, which is a small but real trust leak worth fixing in your pitch.
Winner: Regions, in the narrow sense that bank ownership strengthened the program's stability rather than killing it.
Cost to the contractor: flat fee vs dealer fee
Hearth's 2026 pricing, per its published pricing page and Capterra's listing, is a flat annual subscription: Essentials at $1,499 for solo operators, Pro at $1,799 with the full quotes-contracts-payments toolkit and five seats, and Elite at $4,999 for multi-location firms, plus a one-time $99 setup fee. Dealer fees per funded job: zero. Once you cross break-even, every additional funded project costs you nothing.
Regions charges no membership or merchant processing fees; you pay a dealer fee on each funded loan, quoted per product so there are no surprise charges, per Regions' contractor financing page. The catch is the size of those fees on promotional products. Regions does not publish a fee schedule, but third-party analyses in 2026, including Build-Folio's EnerBank alternatives review, estimate zero-interest promotions can cost the contractor 20% or more of the financed amount. Run the math on our dealer fee breakdown: at even a 6% average fee, financing about $32,000 a year already costs more than Hearth Pro's subscription.
Winner: Hearth for any contractor financing more than roughly $30,000 a year; Regions only if you finance a handful of jobs annually.
The Zero Interest Loan: still the standout product
Regions' Zero Interest Loan remains genuinely different from most "0% financing" in the market. It combines equal monthly payments with a 0% fixed APR for the full term, so there is no deferred interest and no back-interest trap if the homeowner misses a payoff deadline. Compare that with typical Same-As-Cash structures (which Regions also offers), where interest accrues retroactively if the balance is not cleared by the promotional date. Our guide to how 0% APR contractor financing actually works covers the difference in detail.
For storm restoration and emergency replacement work, a true no-interest, no-fine-print offer calms exactly the fear that stalls stressed homeowners. Roofers weighing this trade-off should also read our Hearth breakdown for storm and replacement jobs. Hearth's lenders sometimes surface promotional offers, but a guaranteed true-0% product is not something a marketplace can promise on every application.
Winner: Regions, decisively, if the 0% offer is central to how you close.
Approval odds and homeowner credit range
Hearth's published floor is a 550 FICO score, and because one application fans out to many lenders, homeowners near the bottom of the range still frequently see an offer. Hearth's own data claims homeowners who receive four to five offers fund at nearly twice the rate of single-offer applicants. We unpack why in how Hearth's lender network works and what the 550 minimum really means for your close rate.
Regions does not publish a minimum score, and as a single bank it underwrites more conservatively than the bottom of Hearth's range. Older EnerBank marketing cited approval rates around 80%, but that figure predates the Regions transition and we could not verify a current equivalent, so treat it as historical. Decisions do come fast, often within minutes by app, web, or phone.
Winner: Hearth, for breadth of approvable homeowners.
Eligibility: can you even join?
Hearth is effectively open enrollment: pay the subscription and you can offer financing your first week in business. That makes it one of the few real options for newer companies; see our guide to offering financing without two years of history.
Regions Home Improvement Financing screens contractors like a bank underwriting a partner. Its 2024 program fact sheet lists 3 or more years in business (5 preferred), $500,000 or more in annual residential sales, a $5,000 minimum average job size, proper licensing and insurance, a satisfactory business credit and Better Business Bureau record, and a financial review. A large share of the contractors reading this are screened out before price ever enters the conversation.
Winner: Hearth, by forfeit for younger and smaller companies.
Pricing side by side
| Cost item | Hearth (2026) | Regions Home Improvement Financing (2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Entry plan | Essentials, $1,499/yr | $0 subscription |
| Full-featured plan | Pro, $1,799/yr (5 users) | Not applicable |
| Top tier | Elite, $4,999/yr (3 locations, 10 users) | Not applicable |
| Setup fee | $99 one time | None published |
| Per-job dealer fee | $0 | Varies by product; est. 20%+ on zero-interest promos (Build-Folio, 2026) |
| Merchant processing or membership fees | None beyond subscription | None, per Regions |
For a deeper cut of the Hearth side, including which tier fits which shop, see our full Hearth fee breakdown.
What contractors actually say
Hearth holds a 4.3 rating from 300+ reviews on Trustpilot and roughly 3.8 on the Better Business Bureau site as of 2026. The praise centers on fast approvals and closing bigger tickets. The recurring complaint is contractual, not technical: BBB complaints repeatedly describe strict auto-renewal, with refunds denied unless contractors cancel more than 30 days before the renewal date. If you sign up, calendar your renewal window on day one.
Regions inherited EnerBank's long-standing reputation for contractor support, and its dedicated relationship manager model still draws positive mentions in program materials and industry coverage. The critical notes in third-party reviews focus on the fee load of promotional products and a contractor enrollment process that moves at bank speed, with a financial review rather than a same-day signup.
Choose Hearth if... choose Regions if...
Choose Hearth if you finance $30,000+ per year, want predictable costs, serve homeowners with mixed credit, are under three years old or below $500,000 in revenue, or want quoting, contracts, and payment collection bundled with financing.
Choose Regions Home Improvement Financing if you clear its eligibility bar, sell storm restoration or emergency replacements where a true 0% APR loan is your best closer, and you finance too few jobs to justify a subscription. Some established firms run both: Regions for ZIL-driven storm work, Hearth as the everyday engine, the same split we recommend in our Hearth vs Service Finance comparison. For a wider look at the promotional-lender field, see Hearth vs Sunlight, Mosaic, and EnerBank.
Final verdict
Regions Home Improvement Financing kept the one product almost nobody else offers, a true 0% APR loan with no deferred-interest trap, and added the stability of a top-20 US bank. But its eligibility requirements exclude most small contractors, and its promotional dealer fees can consume a fifth of a job. Hearth's flat $1,499 to $1,799 subscription, open enrollment, 550 FICO floor, and $250,000 loan ceiling make it the better default for the majority of contracting businesses in 2026. Start with Hearth as your primary platform, and add Regions later only if the ZIL fills a specific hole in your sales process.
See if Hearth's flat-fee model fits your business
How we put this together
We compared published pricing and program pages from Hearth (gethearth.com) and Regions Bank (regions.com and its RHIF contractor portal), the Regions Financial press release on the EnerBank acquisition, the 2024 Regions Home Improvement Financing program fact sheet, Capterra's Hearth listing, and review data from Trustpilot and the Better Business Bureau, supplemented by Build-Folio's 2026 fee analysis. Where a pre-acquisition EnerBank number could not be re-verified under Regions, we flagged it as historical. Figures last checked July 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Is EnerBank still in business in 2026?
EnerBank no longer exists as a standalone company, but its lending program continues as Regions Home Improvement Financing. Regions Bank completed the acquisition in October 2021, retired the EnerBank brand, and now runs the same core loan products under its own name; enerbank.com redirects to Regions.
Did EnerBank's Zero Interest Loan survive the Regions takeover?
Yes, the Zero Interest Loan is still offered through Regions Home Improvement Financing. It remains a true 0% fixed APR loan with equal monthly payments and no deferred-interest clawback, which separates it from typical same-as-cash promotions.
How much does Hearth cost contractors in 2026?
Hearth costs $1,499 per year for Essentials, $1,799 for Pro, or $4,999 for Elite, plus a one-time $99 setup fee, with no per-job dealer fees. Subscriptions auto-renew annually, and refunds are rarely granted after renewal, so track your cancellation window.
Can a small or new contractor join Regions Home Improvement Financing?
Usually not: Regions' program materials require at least 3 years in business, $500,000 or more in annual residential sales, and a $5,000 minimum average job, along with licensing, insurance, and a financial review. Hearth, by contrast, has no revenue or tenure requirement.
What credit score do homeowners need for each platform?
Hearth accepts FICO scores as low as 550 across its lender network, while Regions does not publish a minimum and underwrites as a single bank, which generally means a higher effective floor. Wider credit acceptance is the main reason marketplaces approve more of a typical contractor's pipeline.
Can I offer both Hearth and Regions financing at the same time?
Yes, nothing in either program prevents running both, and some established contractors pair them deliberately. A common split uses the Regions Zero Interest Loan for storm and emergency jobs while Hearth handles everyday remodeling volume; the real cost is managing two systems and two sets of paperwork.
