You are here: Home > Hall of Shame: Misleading mortgage marketers

Hall of Shame: Misleading mortgage marketers

By on November 6, 2008 in deceptive marketing, ethics, hall of shame

Every homeowner gets them: Misleading letters from mortgage lenders informing you that you are eligible for a lower payment.

Here’s one I received a few months ago from Eagle Nationwide Mortgage:

Eagle Nationwide Mortgage - misleading letter

The letter above follows the typical template:

  • Your mortgage lender’s name is at the top, along with your “account number”
  • Contains the word “URGENT” and “ACT IMMEDIATELY”
  • It includes a notification that after reviewing your file, it’s been determined that you can save money if you contact them now

    • Sounds like a great deal, doesn’t it?

    Slow down.

    It’s not from your mortgage lender. It’s from their competitor that has acquired your mortgage information and is using it to lure you into moving your mortgage to them.

    Because they’ve used your lender’s name and information regarding your loan, you’ll open the letter and read it. Unless you read the fine print at the bottom or on the back of the page, you wouldn’t know it’s not your lender.

    I’ve received countless solicitations that have incorporated my current loan balance and payment, then showed how much the payment would be if I accepted their offer. For me, this crosses the line. I don’t want this information being used by marketers.

    And I especially don’t want it being used by lenders that use questionable marketing tactics. If they’ll do this, what else will they do with my personal data?

    This is clearly deceptive marketing, and for that, misleading mortgage marketers deserve a place in the Responsible Marketing Hall of Shame.

    So, have you received one of these solicitations? What’s your story?

    Comment below to share.

    Subscribe to this feed.

    Related posts:

    , , ,

    • moon

      I’ve received that sort of solicitation before and I think they are deplorable. One time was on the phone with a telemarketer, and I asked her where they even got that info in the first place, and apparently you can get that information from City Hall when you buy your house, and it is registered there as a transfer of property, and also the property transfer is posted in the newspaper. Considering the uses that sort of information gets used for any more, maybe it is time to talk to our legislators about guarding our privacy. Is it even really necessary to make that sort of information a matter of public record anymore? Maybe there was a reason for it once, but I don’t see any good reason for it now. They also have ways of finding out from the DMV when you’ve bought and registered a new car for example, when I bought my car, I got all kinds of mailings from a company trying to sell me an extended service plan that was not the service plan for the dealership I bought it from, or from the company that made the car, but the initial wording was designed to lead to the impression that this was a factory warranty program, even though my car is way too old to be eligible for any warranties at this point, I bought it used. Looking further, it was some independent company trying to sell me their service. I think considering the way personal information is used in general, we really need to talk to our legislators about ways to go about safeguarding it, who my mortgage is with is nobody’s d*** business!

    • http://www.mortgagesloansadvice.com Erica Rose

      A very well written article. Thanks for the good tips!