The results of a recent survey conducted by online research service LowestRates.ca revealed that Canadians are far more likely to spend time on the internet looking for desirable vacation spots than shopping for their mortgage.
The typical Canadian user consumes an average of 5.75 hours in researching for mortgage and an average of 7.75 hours for travel-related queries, according to CTV chief financial commentator Pattie Lovett-Reid.
“That may be because Canadians have a blind loyalty to big banks and they’re not shopping around before signing a mortgage that’s potentially costing them more than $30,000 over the lifetime of the contract,” Lovett-Reid surmised.
This observation was backed by the study, which found that fully 67 per cent of respondents acquire mortgage information via their preferred banks. 22 per cent coordinated with brokers, and 13 per cent worked with credit unions.
Online rate comparison portals, which have seen much advancement in their algorithms and technologies over the past few years, were used by only 8 per cent of those surveyed, despite 60 per cent saying that they are considering using these comparison sites. Approximately 40 per cent said that they did not perform any comparisons at all, and just went with what their mortgage seller provided.
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