Interest Rates Hard to Find on Bank Web Sites

Web Mystery Shoppers International Inc. gathered the responses of nearly 500 participants who each were assigned a bank Web site and spent between 30 to 90 minutes reviewing it. Seventy-seven percent of the group of Web Mystery Shoppers said they expect to use the Internet to help them decide where to get their next mortgage, and 50% had already researched mortgages online.

However, after having visited a bank’s site for mortgage information, the shoppers rated the likelihood of returning to that site as only 2.95 on a 5-point scale, where 5 meant “almost certain” to return, Web Mystery reported. While there was “a lot of variation in the results,” even top-scoring Bank of America only rated 3.67 out of 5 on the likelihood of returning, and BB&T was lowest-ranked on that criterion with a 2.06.

The Canadian-based company says it helps businesses increase sales and lower selling costs by using large numbers of trained, paid testers, who work from their own computers and provide detailed, page-by-page feedback, about their experience.

For this particular study, the shoppers were assigned to imagine that they were purchasing a home and wanted to investigate mortgages online. When visiting the bank site, shoppers were required to look for information that would be important in deciding who to get a mortgage from, find out the current mortgage rates, and to fill out, but not submit, an online mortgage application if available. Furthermore, they were told to stop the process as soon as the site required that they take steps outside the site such as contacting a broker.

According to the shoppers responses, one of the top frustrations was with banks either not including current interest rate information, or hiding it until after the customer was deep into the application process.

“Some banks still don’t seem to realize that they can save themselves time and money by letting people do what they want to do: educate themselves and get rate information before contacting the bank,” said company president Tema Frank in the announcement. “If the customer is rate-sensitive, and your rates aren’t the best, you are far better off to have them discover that themselves than to make them call a branch! Why waste your staff’s time with people who won’t want to do business with you anyway?”

The second most-cited criteria as important in choosing where to get a next mortgage, was customer service — which does not equal personal contact with a representative, the Canadian company reported.

“If I wanted to speak to someone personally I wouldn’t be shopping online for a mortgage!” one Mystery Shopper responded.

The banks ranked well on consumer confidence toward the site conserving their privacy, with an industry average score of nearly 4 out of 5, and even the lowest ranked bank on this criterion scoring neutral, not negative.

Sites that were studied between May 28 and June 20 consisted of the largest U.S. banks, and some smaller, regional banks including 1st Mariner Bank, Bank One, Chase, Compass Bank, Citibank, Green Point, National City, SunTrust Bank, Wachovia, Washington Mutual, Wells Fargo and World Savings. There was no consistent correlation between the size of the bank and consumer satisfaction.

In a recent study published by Change Sciences Group, the ability of 11 competitive lending sites to meet customer goals was examined. The top rated site was that of National City.

“Consumers look to lenders’ sites for help with understanding the mortgage process, terminology, product types and rates,” the Change Sciences report said. “Sites that put consumers at ease by anticipating and answering questions are much more likely to attract applicants, whether the application is completed online or not.”

In its recent semiannual Internet Mortgage Scorecard, GomezPro again ranked IndyMacMortgage.com as the best overall Internet mortgage site because its fully online application and decisioning process enables customers to obtain online rate locks and approvals, plus the site continues to offer a number of customer guarantees around rates, closing and response time.