More surfing for payday loans than mortgages in July

17 October 2011

Searches for mortgage-related products dropped 14% in July compared with January. There were 818,088 searches in July, down from 951,923 in January 2011.

Mortgage-related products accounted for 31% of retail banking-related searches in July, down from 35% in January. But loan-related searches were up 53,543 on January’s total, accounting for 37% of retail banking searches in July, with 21% relating to payday loans.

Moneysupermarket.com was the most visible website for mortgages, followed by Halifax, Santander and Moneysavingexpert.com. John Charcol was the 16th most visible website for mortgage terms and the only broker in the top 20 firms.

Mark Lofthouse, chief executive officer of Mortgage Brain, says Greenlight’s research is not in line with transaction levels through its systems in these months.

He says: “We experienced a 4.6% increase in transactions between June and July compared with January and February. Data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders also shows gross lending was £12.6bn in July, up from £9.2bn in January.”

But Frank Eve, managing director of Frank Eve Consulting, says consumers tend to first go online to search for mortgages and visit a broker or lender later, with the mortgage transaction occurring a few months after the initial search. This could account for the differing searches and transaction levels.

He adds: “The drop could also be attributable to the doom and gloom in the news about the European sovereign debt crisis, which will be affecting consumer confidence.”

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