More Britons are rejecting traditional face-to-face contact and are turning to the Internet or telephone when applying for a mortgage, according to figures from the Alliance & Leicester movingimproving index.
Out of 2000 people surveyed, more than one in ten (12%) now prefer to apply for home loans over the phone or Web, and this figure increases to almost 23% for those who are re-mortgaging or buying their next home.
But the majority of first time buyers still favour face-to-face meetings, with only nine per cent looking to apply for a mortgage via the telephone or Internet.
Key reasons for dealing direct are convenience (52%), time-saving (33%) and simplicity (23%), although almost one in five (18%) said they believed they could can get a better deal by applying for mortgages via the Internet. This figure dropped to only two per cent who thought the telephone get them a cheaper home loan.
Paul Cooper, head of mortgages, Alliance & Leicester, says: "Many lenders now allow customers to apply for mortgages online and quite often there are better deals available on the Internet."
Alliance and Leicester says only three per cent of those who prefer face-to-face contact say they don't trust the Internet, indicating that it is not a fear of technology or security concerns that are stopping some people exploiting direct channels.