Truist Doctor Loan Review (2026): 0% Down to $1M, Student Loans Excluded in Writing, and the 10- and 15-Year Rules That Change Your Terms

Truist Doctor Loan at a glance

Who qualifies

Truist splits applicants into two groups. In training: licensed residents, interns, and fellows in MD, DO, and DPM programs, who can borrow up to $1M. In practice: physicians and dentists with an MD, DO, DPM, DDS, or DMD, including, as Truist’s FAQ spells out, dental surgeons, orthodontists, general dentists, and psychiatrists licensed as medical doctors.

Interns are named, which helps a PGY-1 buying in June. Podiatrists are in at both stages. Two groups are missing. Dental residents aren’t in the trainee list, even though practicing dentists qualify; TD Bank names them explicitly. And veterinarians aren’t eligible at all; a DVM should look at Huntington.

There is no relationship requirement to qualify in your first 15 years out. You don’t need a Truist account to apply, though the rate discount below is a reason to have one.

The 10- and 15-year rules

This is the part of Truist’s program that most reviews miss, and it is in the disclosures in plain language.

The Truist Wealth gate at 15 years is a relationship requirement, not a closed door: Truist Wealth is the bank’s advisory arm, and the note on its page says other products are available to non-clients. But it means the Doctor Loan is a program for the first half of a career. Established attendings who want a physician program without that condition should quote KeyBank, which publishes no years-out limit.

Down payment tiers and loan limits

The practicing-physician tiers are identical to TD Bank’s and a step below Huntington’s, which goes to $1.75M at 5% down and $2.5M overall. For trainees, Truist publishes the $1 million loan limit but not the financing percentage that goes with it. In practice physician programs offer residents 100% at that size, but Truist hasn’t written it down, so ask.

Truist also prints the caution every 0%-down borrower should read once: with 100% financing you have no equity until you pay down principal or the home appreciates, and if values fall you can owe more than the house is worth. That is true of every program on this site. Truist is the only lender that says it on the product page.

Student loans and DTI

Every physician program claims to be flexible about student loans. Truist is the first we have reviewed that says how. From disclosure 2: student loan debt may be excluded from the debt-to-income calculation if it will be deferred for at least 12 months after closing, and reduced payments under an eligible income-driven repayment plan may be accepted, depending on your qualifying income, the status of the plan, and documentation.

What that means in practice. An incoming intern whose loans stay in deferment or forbearance through the first year has them left out of the ratio entirely. A PGY-3 paying $350 a month on an income-driven plan can have the $350 counted rather than a percentage of a $300,000 balance, which on a conventional loan could be $1,500 to $3,000 a month of phantom debt. The words “may be” matter: bring the servicer statement showing the payment and the plan’s recertification date.

Truist doesn’t publish a DTI ceiling, so you know how the numerator is built and not where the line is. For how this compares with conventional, FHA, and VA rules, see how student loans affect a physician mortgage.

The rate discount

Truist discounts the mortgage rate for borrowers who hold deposits and investments with the bank, and publishes the schedule.

Truist’s own example: a borrower quoted 7.00% with $250,000 in qualifying balances closes at 6.625%. On a $900,000 loan, that 0.375 points is roughly $225 a month.

Three conditions decide whether you actually get it. The accounts must be opened and funded seven business days before closing, or the loan is repriced. The balance has to be separate from your down payment and closing costs, unless you document those funds elsewhere. And you must be a named holder on the account. For a resident this table is mostly theoretical. For an attending rolling over an old 403(b), an IRA moved to Truist before closing counts, and $100,000 of retirement money is a quarter point for the life of the loan. Weigh that against what the investments cost at Truist compared with where they are now.

Where it’s available

Truist’s disclosure states the Doctor Loan is not available for properties in Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii. That is the entire geographic restriction it publishes. Huntington prints no state information at all and TD is limited to its 16 branch states, so this is the broadest published availability of the lenders we have reviewed.

Truist’s branches run from Texas and Florida up through the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, DC, and Pennsylvania, and that is where its loan officers know the hospital systems: Emory, Duke, UNC, Vanderbilt, VCU, Wake Forest, MUSC. Outside the footprint the loan is still offered, handled remotely. Confirm your state on the first call; “not available in three states” and “available in the other forty-seven” are not quite the same sentence.

What Truist doesn’t publish, and what to ask

• •DTI ceiling. The student-loan rules are published; the maximum ratio isn’t. Ask: “What is the maximum DTI on the Doctor Loan?” Competitors publish 43% to 50%.
• •Fixed or adjustable. The program page doesn’t say which rate types are offered. Ask: “Is there a 30-year fixed Doctor Loan, and which ARM terms?”
• •Closing before a start date. Not published. Huntington prints 90 days. Ask: “How many days before my contract start date can we close?”
• •Financing percentage for residents. Only the $1 million loan limit is stated. Ask: “Is 100% financing available to a resident at my price?”
• •Condos, reserves, seller contributions, cash-out, prepayment. None are stated. “Additional LTV restrictions may apply” usually means condos and some markets; get it in the pre-qualification letter.

Rates

Truist posts daily rates for its standard mortgages but not for the Doctor Loan, which is priced per borrower like every physician program on this site. The benchmark is public. Freddie Mac’s national average for a 30-year fixed conventional mortgage is 6.95% for the week of September 17, 2026. Physician loans typically quote 0.125 to 0.5 points above that in exchange for the low down payment and no mortgage insurance. With Truist, the relationship discount can erase that premium: a borrower with $250,000 at the bank takes 0.375 off, which is most of the typical spread.

Where our benchmark comes from: where our rates come from. Current numbers and a ten-year chart: mortgage rates.

Run Truist’s 0% tier against a conventional loan

The calculator starts from this week’s Freddie Mac average and assumes the physician loan is 0% down with no mortgage insurance, which is Truist’s first tier up to $1M for doctors within 10 years of training. If you qualify for the relationship discount, lower the physician rate by your tier and watch the monthly gap close. If you are 10 to 15 years out, set the comparison at 10% down on both sides; the Doctor Loan’s advantage is then no mortgage insurance rather than no down payment.

Strengths and drawbacks

Strengths

• •The most complete published terms we have reviewed: tiers, student-loan treatment, a discount schedule, excluded states, and the years-out rules, all in numbered disclosures.
• •Student loans excluded from DTI when deferred 12 months, and income-driven payments accepted, in writing.
• •Available everywhere but three states, with no account required to qualify in the first 15 years.
• •A rate discount of up to 0.75 points that counts IRAs and investment accounts, not just deposits.
• •Interns and podiatrists named; one of the longest-running physician programs in the country.

Drawbacks

• •0% and 5% down end at 10 years post-training; the whole program ends at 15 unless you are a Truist Wealth client.
• •A $2M ceiling, below Huntington’s $2.5M and KeyBank’s $3.5M.
• •No published DTI ceiling, rate types, or closing window before a start date.
• •Dental residents and veterinarians aren’t named; primary residences only.
• •The discount needs $100,000 at the bank beyond your down payment, which most residents don’t have.

Who it’s for, and who should keep looking

• •Residents and fellows with loans in deferment or on an income-driven plan: yes. The DTI treatment is published and favorable.
• •Attendings under 10 years out, buying to $1.5 million: yes, in 47 states and DC.
• •Physicians with $100,000 or more they would move to Truist: yes; the discount can cancel the physician-loan rate premium.
• •Southeast and Mid-Atlantic buyers who want a loan officer who knows the local systems: yes.
• •10 to 15 years out and wanting less than 10% down: not here. Huntington publishes no years-out limit on its 0% and 5% tiers.
• •15 or more years out without a Truist Wealth relationship, or buying above $2M: quote KeyBank.
• •Veterinarians, dental residents, and buyers in Alaska, Arizona, or Hawaii: excluded by the published terms.

How to apply, and what to have ready

• 1.Count your years. Find the date your residency or last fellowship ended. Under 10, all tiers are open. Tell the loan officer the date up front so the pre-qualification reflects the right tier.
• 2.Apply online or call 855-257-4040. Truist’s page also has a loan-officer finder by location. Ask the five unpublished questions above on the first call.
• 3.If you want the rate discount, move the money early. Accounts must be open and funded seven business days before closing, and the balance can’t be your down payment. An IRA transfer can take weeks; start it when you start house-hunting.
• 4.Gather the file: employment or training contract with start date and salary, license, two years of returns or transcripts if you have them, bank statements, and, because Truist’s DTI treatment depends on it, your student-loan servicer statement showing deferment end date or the income-driven payment and recertification date.
• 5.Get a second written quote the same week. Compare rate, points, and total closing costs after Truist’s discount, not before it.

Deciding whether a physician loan is right at all: read the physician mortgage guide.

Alternatives to quote alongside Truist

• •Huntington Bank: higher limits ($1.75M at 5% down, $2.5M overall), no published years-out rule, veterinarians eligible, a 90-day early-close window in writing. Only ARM terms published; no student-loan treatment published.
• •TD Bank: the same three tiers with a fixed rate in writing and dental residents named, but only in 16 East Coast states, only within 10 years of residency, and only with a TD checking account.
• •KeyBank: a $3.5M ceiling and no years-out limit for established attendings, with none of its down-payment tiers published.
• •BMO: the same three tiers with fixed and adjustable rates in writing, a 90-day start window, and New York the only excluded state. 0% down ends after five years of practice rather than ten, and eight states are capped at 95%.
• •Flagstar Bank: lends in Alaska, Arizona, and Hawaii, and names NPs, PAs, CRNAs, pharmacists, and optometrists. ARM-only, to $1.5M, with nothing published on student loans.
• •Bank of America: no 10- or 15-year clock, and medical students named. The trade is cash: 3% minimum down, 4 to 6 months of reserves, and a BofA account.

We are reviewing each major physician lender against its own published terms. As each review publishes it is linked here and from the lender comparison.

Sources

• •Truist Doctor Loan (program page and disclosures)

Read September 19, 2026. Terms quoted are from the program page, its FAQ, and disclosures 1 through 5. Where this review says “not published,” the page contains no statement on the point.