Top concern is receiving cold calls after providing phone numbers
More consumers have gone online to compare mortgage quotes, but concerns have grown about the security of their personal information.
Research from Contact State, which aims to stop fraudulent data practices and set a new standard in consumer data exchange, found that the vast majority of consumers had at least some concerns about sharing their data to get an online mortgage quote.
Only 33% of the 5,000 consumers surveyed said they had no concerns about sharing personal information. Almost one in four consumers (24%) said they felt ‘forced’ to share their data to get a mortgage quote and 29% had a negative experience when getting a quote.
Of those who had a bad experience, 24% said it was unclear that they would have to submit personal details to receive an online mortgage quote; 24% expected to receive an online quote but were called instead; and 29% were contacted by a company different from the one to which they had submitted their details.
Contact State also reported that for most consumers receiving unsolicited calls as a result of sharing data online was one of the biggest issues.
Its research found that 73% of consumers had received cold calls over the last 12 months, five on average, which across the UK equated to a total of 193 million unsolicited calls in the last year.
Around 63% of consumers said they would be unhappy if they filled in a form for a quote with one company, but were called by a different one, while 90% said the fact their number has been passed on made them feel concerned about their data.
Around half of the respondents (48%) who received a cold call said it made them feel angry and 14% felt vulnerable.
Read more: GDPR isn’t going to kill you.
The survey also found that these negative experiences had resulted in 39% of people feeling less willing to share their data online than they were five years ago and 37% admitted to having reservations about sharing their phone number to get a mortgage quote.
Thomas Brett, head of mortgages and lending at Contact State, added that the data showed that landing pages consumers were seeing when they searched for quotes were becoming increasingly deceptive, presenting themselves as an instant quote or calculation when in fact, they were lead generation pages.
“This is causing them to feel quite negative towards the entire experience,” Brett said. “So, if brokers are buying data or leads from a source they don’t understand, and the customer has had a negative experience getting to them, not only are they less likely to buy, but as the buyer of that lead, the mortgage firm or broker could well be in breach of the Consumer Duty.”
