Consumer complaint received 2020-10-08
Company: Home Loan Center, Inc.
State: OH
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage

Complaint:
Overview of LendingTree 's Business Practices : Online Exploration of Current Interest Rates - Passing Key Personal Financial Information to Mortgage Brokers / Lenders - Pulling Consumer Credit Reports - Without Explicit Written Consent -- I was curious about current interest rates - such that I might choose to refinance my existing home loan at a cheaper interest rate. I went to " XXXX '' as they were one of the sites listed after a XXXX search. On their website they have an option to " Browse current mortgage rates ''... which is exactly what I wanted to do. You are then led through a set of basic questions related to your current loan, home value, credit score, etc -- and then there is a final button to " View My Rates ''. Keep in mind, the user believes they are going to lookup rates in their zip-code area... what is NOT clear is that LendingTree will immediately send all your information to 5+ mortgage brokers/lenders and your phone is going to immediately ring. As a matter of fact, my phone rang BEFORE they even displayed representative rates. 

Now, they did have a nice bit of " fine print '' on the page where I selected " View My Rates ''... which has a bunch of legal mumbo-jumbo related to claiming that the user is giving " Express Written Consent '' as per the Fair Credit Reporting Act to immediately share my information with a host of 3rd party companies. I don't know how selecting a " View My Rates '' button could possibly be construed as " Express Written Consent '' to share my valuable credit and contact information - though they seem to think this is perfectly okay. My guess is that their methods are NOT legal, as the user didn't actually provide any form of written consent - and they should not be able to hide behind the law XXXX via their fine print ) and act like they are being above board. 

So what are they really doing? Their whole purpose of letting me " Browse Rates '' was to capture my personal financial information, such that they can immediately share it with their partners... which is a very shady business practice at best. In fact, they go so far as to claim that the user is allowing multiple credit reports to be pulled - which we all know can actually damage one 's credit score! They make their money by sharing personal information - which is fine, but only if they're really clear about it. 

Given that they certainly plan to do these things, they need to provide very explicit user actions - that truly let the user know what is about to happen and that their information is going to be shared/distributed as a result, that they're going to be soliciting calls from mortgage brokers, that credit reports will be pulled, etc.. This should ALL be clear. 

Their usage of the " fine print '' is a truly deceptive and unwelcomed business practice -- one that is obviously part of their business model ( as they're getting paid for the information/leads they provide ).

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation