Trigger leads are all about offering choices to consumers. Too many times, especially in the sub prime market, you'll find lenders that offer deals with little or no net benefit all the while charging 5-7 points front and back on the deal.
Many states have adopted strong predatory lending laws to try to police your industry from RAPING often poor, financial uneducated consumers who have for years swallowed the line of BS that "this is the best rate we can get you - or the is the only deal you qualify for" when it just isn't true.
When multiple lenders compete for the same borrowers that was told he had no good options you'd be surprised how often a number of MUCH better offers surface. The NAMB took the issues of triggers all the way to the FTC. You know what they said - they are not outlawing triggers. You know why, they don't have the authority.
Triggers don't violate the FCRA, they offer often disenfranchised borrowers choices, and too many mortgage brokers have forgotten how to earn business. Too many years of being just order takers. Too many times grossly misleading consumers to take their "best deal" when in fact it was only the best deal for the broker and not the consumer.
The NAMB also stoked the flames of identity theft concerns regarding triggers - WHAT A JOKE!
NEVER on a trigger lead is the borrower's SSN, date of birth, or any other information that isn't already public info given out. Nothing on a trigger lead is giving an identity thief anything that takes him closer to stealing your mojo.
Trigger leads have been around forever. It's only in the last 18 months that they have been effectively used in the mortgage industry. Apply for a credit card...guess what, you get 10 more offers in the next week. Why, a trigger is generated at the bureau and sold to credit issuers...is anyone screaming about that - NO!
Same in the insurance and automotive industries too. Every American with a phone number can opt-out of the bureaus marketing lists. But it's funny, I don't see consumers complaining. A call from a mortgage company based on a trigger is somehow more annoying than any other mortgage cold call that interrupts their dinner? I think not!
The NAMB will always talk about the 1%-2% of THEIR OWN MEMBERSHIP that are flat out unethical. Trust me, it isn't a trigger lead that makes them lie to a prospect. They do it with teaser rates on direct mail, phone calls to non-FCRA regulated lists, etc. Triggers aren't to blame. Competition makes America great. Triggers EXPOSE the very brokers that cry foul when they have their prospect move to a better deal.
That is truly the rest of the story of trigger leads.
Jack Johnson is President of http://www.MortgageTriggers.com the nation's largest independent provider of mortgage trigger leads.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-Trigger-Leads-Are-A-Good-Thing&id=615198
