Member Article

Trussle wants to make switching your mortgage as easy as switching energy provider

Digital-only mortgage broker, Trussle, has launched a new campaign that is looking to fuel reform in the archaic mortgage market and ultimately make switching your mortgage as easy as switching energy providers.

The London-based startup has today (Tuesday 18 July) launched a white paper which outlines five initial recommendations for a Mortgage Switch Guarantee which it says could save homeowners £15bn every year.

Designed to tackle the ‘switching inertia’ which sees consumers unwilling or unsure about how to go about switching their mortgage to a better deal, the proposals look to encourage reform in the market and the adoption of new industry standards.

The five recommendations include:

• Standardising and simplifying the way mortgages are priced and presented to customers
• Improving lenders’ communication with customers when prompting borrowers to switch
• An obligation for lenders to offer new deals to customers who are ‘mortgage prisoners’
• Modernising a range of slow and outdated processes when it comes to switching.

With the FCA’s Mortgage Market Review to be published imminently, Trussle has seized upon the opportunity to spark a debate about the practices of mortgage lenders and a frank discussion about the current state of the market.

Pointing fingers at some of the problems that the FCA’s report will look at, the digital mortgage broker has claimed that a lack of uniformity and education around mortgage pricing plus inadequate information from lenders is hampering the ability of borrowers to switch to better deals.

The report also calls for action on so-called ‘mortgage prisoners’, those trapped on Standard Variable Rates (SVRs) who are unable to remortgage due to the Bank of England’s tightened lending criteria that was introduced in 2014.

Ishaan Malhi, CEO and founder of Trussle, claimed that the proposals would help put an end to the ‘unfairness’ which sees long-suffering borrowers losing out to the tune of billions of pounds due to poor quality information and a lack of clarity.

He said: “We’ve spent the best part of a year speaking with thousands of borrowers and meeting with industry leaders from across the market to identify this ambitious but necessary set of standards. Thankfully there’s already consensus among senior industry figures that many aspects of the remortgage market are in need of improvement.

“But for the Mortgage Switch Guarantee to be a success, it will need to be widely adopted by lenders and brokers, and supported by regulators and government. We’ll therefore be speaking with and listening to feedback from these key groups in the coming months.”