There’s been a 100% rise in the number of homeowners that would go online for their next mortgage quote, according to Contact State.

But the tech firm found that 28% admitted they have concerns about sharing their email address to get an online mortgage quote, while 42% would not want to share their phone number.

And nearly two-thirds (63%) of consumers would be unhappy to receive a quote from a company other than the one they shared their details with.

Online shift

Consumers are becoming more savvy when it comes to shopping around online for mortgage quotes, according to Contact State’s latest report Data Control Matters.

But, while there has been a clear shift to online mortgage quotes from traditional routes such as brokers and banks, concerns about data sharing are rising.

Among those who have held a mortgage, 17% began their last search online. However, when asked where they would search for their next mortgage, 31% said online. Among those who have previously held a mortgage, 34% would now begin their search online – a rise of 100%.

Three-quarters (73%) of mortgage holders said they would get more than one quote if they were searhcing for a mortgage now, with 42% saying they’d get at least three.

Data concerns

However, while more people than ever are choosing to get mortgage quotes online, consumers are becoming increasingly unhappy with the way in which some mortgage firms are handling their personal information.

One in four (25%) said they would have concerns about sharing details about their occupation to get an online mortgage quote, a third (33%) would not want to disclose salary details while more than two in five (45%) would not share spending figures or their ID (40%). Furthermore, 28% said they would not be happy sharing their email address and 37% their phone number.

Survey respondents were particularly concerned about being contacted too much and being contacted by companies other than the one they submitted details to.

Almost a third (31%) of people feel less willing to share their data online now than they were five years ago and so many have reservations about sharing their phone number to get a mortgage quote.

Thomas Brett, head of mortgages and lending at Contact State, said: “Gone are the days of getting one mortgage quote and then proceeding – people want to take more control of their financial decisions.

“However, our data shows that the landing pages they are seeing when they search for quotes are becoming increasingly ‘deceptive’, presenting themselves as an instant quote or calculation when in fact, they are lead generation pages.

“As a result, 29% of consumers have had a bad experience when searching online for mortgage quotes, and 24% say they felt they were forced into sharing their data.”