Website for mortgage brokers: why estimates stop

A buyer who searches for a mortgage broker is deciding whether the next step is worth a conversation. They want to see a number first, something rough they can check against what they earn. A homepage calculator that promises see what you could borrow then asks for annual income, monthly debts, a date of birth and a tick box that agrees to a check on their file. Reading that box, a visitor learns the estimate comes with a record they did not agree to share. Some close the tab, and the broker never hears from them.

• Does the estimate show a rough range before any consent box or identity number?
• Does the headline promise match the first field the calculator asks for?
• Is a credit check explained in plain words next to the box that agrees to it?
• Can a buyer request a call without giving a date of birth or identity number?
• Does the request say what the broker will ask for on the call, and when?

Mortgage brokers rely on a short promise to get a visit: find out what you could borrow. A buyer who reads 'see what you could borrow' expects a figure, and the first thing they are asked for should be something they can estimate from memory, such as income and rough monthly debts. When the form asks for a consent box instead, the expectation breaks, and the buyer is left deciding whether to trust a stranger with their record before they know if the broker is worth the call.

Tell this apart from a plain form error by reading the tool's first screen as a buyer who has never heard of your firm. Count the fields and boxes that appear before the first number. If a consent box or an identity field comes first, the order is the cause, and the form is working as it was built. Run the same buyer through the tool and watch the step where the run stops, with the screenshot showing the box.

A consent box about a credit check is written with care, but it arrives before the buyer knows what it gets them. A buyer who has not seen a figure has no reason to agree to a check on their file, and they are right to wait. The better version places one plain sentence next to the box saying what the check is for and what the buyer will see afterward, and lets them skip it and still request a call.

Look at the box as a buyer would. Is the reason on the same screen, and is there a way forward without ticking it? Run two visitors, one who ticks the box and one who skips it. If only the visitor who ticked gets to a request, the page has made the check a condition of talking to anyone. The report marks the box as the stop, with a screenshot of the text the buyer read.

The request form is the last step, and it is where a first-time buyer decides whether the broker is worth a conversation. If it asks for a date of birth, an identity number and a list of accounts, the visitor is answering the questions a broker asks on a first call, but on a web form they cannot see the broker and cannot tell what happens to the answers. The right version asks for a name, a contact method and a rough time to talk. The broker asks for the rest on the call, in a conversation the buyer can stop.

Check it with one run. Fill in the request form with a made-up name, an email inbox you can read and nothing else. If the form refuses to submit, the field that blocked it is the cause. If it submits and the confirmation email arrives, the first step works. Compare the wording of that email with what the buyer was promised on the homepage.

Pricing page testing

The first run finds the estimate's consent box, the missing explanation or the early identity field. The fix moves that step, and the same buyer runs again to see whether they get a range and a request without giving details they have not agreed to share. Run it again when you add a loan product, change the headline or add a second calculator, since each promise has to match the first field.