When lenders compete, you lose ... your privacy, that is. That's what one reader discovered recently after making the mistake of shopping for a loan on LendingTree.com.
"My husband and I have been thinking about taking out a home equity loan for some remodeling we'd like to do," the reader wrote. "We haven't decided for certain if we are ready to do it, but I thought I could find out what kind of rates and payments we could expect by going to LendingTree.com. I began filling out the form for an equity line of credit, but then I got nervous about what having four different banks checking our credit report will do to our credit score. So I did not complete or submit the form."
The next week the reader started getting phone calls from eager mortgage brokers, all promising incredibly low rates and no fees on an equity loan. "This was surprising, because we still had not decided to apply for a loan anywhere," the reader said. "When I told them we weren't interested in applying right now, each bank said they had gotten our name and phone number from LendingTree. One even told me he was paying good money to LendingTree for these sales leads and he was sick and tired of all the leads turning out to be bum steers."
After turning down four would-be lenders, the reader assumed the calls would stop, since that's how many banks LendingTree's ads say they will have bid. But the calls kept coming. "After the sixth call, my husband called LendingTree to complain," the reader wrote. "Since I had not completed the LendingTree form or submitted it, we thought LendingTree had no right to share our phone number with anyone. But LendingTree answered that it was my fault for not having read their privacy policy more closely, because hitting the 'Continue' button on the first page of the form is enough to let them share our information."
Sure enough, the LendingTree privacy policy does indeed state that clicking 'Continue' to the second page two of their form opens the privacy floodgates:
"Sharing information with our participating Lenders and real estate professionals. At your direction (when you click on the "Submit" button), the information that you provide to us on the loan or realty request will be sent through the LendingTree system and presented to up to four participating Lenders who offer the types of loan products you have identified, other parties relevant to your transaction and/or participating real estate professionals. Lenders will also receive your credit history when they review your request. If you complete the first page of the loan request form (by hitting the "Continue" button on "Page 1: Tell Us About Your Loan") but leave portions of the form incomplete, LendingTree will transmit your loan request form to up to 4 of its lenders who can help you complete your loan request and possibly extend you loan offers. By completing the first page of the loan request form, you authorize LendingTree to transmit your loan request form to up to 4 lenders. No credit check will be performed on behalf of LendingTree until you authorize us to do so by submitting a completed loan request. As our Lenders and real estate professionals may keep and use your information whether or not you qualify for a loan with them or use their services, we recommend that you contact them directly for more information about their specific privacy policies."
So not only does LendingTree expect you to read its privacy policy in detail, it also expects you ti contact its lenders about their privacy policies before you even know who the lenders are. How is that supposed to work? And how did more than four lenders get the reader's phone number?
At any rate, their LendingTree experience has soured the reader and her husband on the whole idea of taking out a home loan right now. "With all the concerns about identity theft these days, I think it is outrageous that LendingTree would be so quick to share important personal information about us," the reader wrote. "At least the phone calls from their lenders seem to have stopped, so I think my husband's complaint did some good. But when we do decide it's time to take out a loan, I can tell you for certain we won't be using LendingTree.com."
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