Lending Tree Review

Lendingtree.com is an on- line financial resource that specializes in making loans. Rather than offering the loans directly itself, Lendingteee.com gathers up financial and personal information from customers and then submits the info to its member banks who then compete for your business. This web site promises to make the loan process the easiest and most convenient experience you could imagine. But does Lendingtree.com really live up to its lofty claims? Let's take a look:

Web Site Commentary:

Lendingtree.com has a large network of financial professionals to help you reach your financial goals. In the real estate section, for example, lendingtree.com is affiliated with more than 650 real estate companies and more than 6,500 real estate professionals. Auto loans, personal loans, and others are represented by many of the "big" names in the business, like Bank of America, Bank One, Citibank, MBNA America, and other well- known financial institutions.

When I came to lendingtree.com, I visited the site looking for debt consolidation loans. I clicked on the link, answered a few questions, and was informed that my best choices would be either a home equity loan or a refinanced mortage with possible cash back. The site then offered me a free credit report (which I declined) and even presented an offer that included $250 toward closing costs if I accepted certain deals. I went ahead and filled out the questionnaire and entered personal info (name, address, social security number, date of birth, etc) to start the process. I then waited for a response.

I did manage to get a couple of offers, which was nice, but the offers presented were not all that great. The process was simple, like the site claimed, but with interest rates at very low levels, I was expecting something better than the 7 percent home equity loan that lendingtree.com was able to find. I had checked other banks at the time, and I could have easily been aprroved for 6 percent with the same type of loan.

Lendingtree.com places limits on many of the loans, so depnding on what you need, you may not be able to use this service at all. With auto loans, the loan has to be at least for $7,500. For home equity loans, it has to be at least $10,000 and for personal loans, at least $1,000. The areas with no limits would include business loans and mortgages. My home equity need is greater than $10,000, so I had no problems. But other consumers might be looking for an amount that is too small for lendingtree.com and if so, they will have to apply elsewhere.

My favorite part of this site is probably some of the user tools, like the finding the right car, determining how much house you can afford, etc. But be forewarned that some of them are more useful than others. The home price estimation tool, for instance, is pretty nice and it responds quickly. You enter your address and it searches a databank of facts and tells you the number of bedrooms and bathrooms for the property; the year it was built; the living area; assessed tax value; and the prices of recent sales for other homes in the same area. I tried this for fun, but it gave me an estimation that ranged by $60,000! Not a very useful estimation, if you ask me. I then noticed that there was a link to click if you need a more precise estimation. I went ahead and selected this option, but I stopped when I noticed that this service carries a price tag. It's not a lot of money, but it shows that the quickness of the first estimation is intended more as a teaser, to get you to continue and pay for a better estimation.

Bottom Line Viewpoint:

Lendingtree.com is a fairly decent service, when taken as a whole. They are affiliated with some of the best known names in the world of lending and personal finance and they do offer some useful tools to help make decisions. The loan offers that I was given are not the best, though, so I cannot give this site an enthusiastic recommendation. Still, it's an ok site, and it might work well for some. It's one of those on- line sites where you pretty much have to just logon and hope for the best. Lendingtree.com was unable to find the best deal for me, but that doesn't mean it won't work for everyone. Logon, and give it a try. You could end up saving yourself quite a bit of money in interst charges in the long run.