Comments on: The Transparent Industry:SmartHippo Beta Launch

By: LEADCRITIC | LeadCritic | SmartHippo Names CEO and Enters Spain

LEADCRITIC | LeadCritic | SmartHippo Names CEO and Enters Spain — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:54:37 +0000

[...] This Post A little over a two years ago – by only a few weeks mind you – SmartHippo announced their beta launch to the world. Since that launch SmartHippo as continued to grow and evolve into a [...]

By: LEADCRITIC | Mortgage Leads News and Opinions

LEADCRITIC | Mortgage Leads News and Opinions — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 04:27:58 +0000

[...] company that was covered here and interviewed here few months ago, SmartHippo made an announcement today. The community based [...]

By: GeorgeFavvas on SmartHippo.com » Blog Archive » SmartHippo media review

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 15:37:54 +0000

[...] “What a huge step for consumers to be able to see the feedback on these companies, or just to have any information on these companies that are calling them.” Leadcritic [...]

By: SmartHippo media review at George Favvas’ blog

SmartHippo media review at George Favvas’ blog — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 16:29:46 +0000

[...] “What a huge step for consumers to be able to see the feedback on these companies, or just to have any information on these companies that are calling them.” Leadcritic [...]

By: JoeMac

JoeMac — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 21:34:10 +0000

I guess some people will want to post rates and some other won’t. I believe it’s a matter of participation. The same way a portion of people write reviews on Amazon and the majority simply use them. I guess it doesn’t take that many people to make such a system work.

By: PEK

PEK — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 05:48:02 +0000

Why would consumers want to post their rate quotes? What would prevent lenders from posing as consumers and posting bogus information?

By: George Favvas

George Favvas — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 00:00:52 +0000

ConsumerControl, I won’t bore the Leadcritic readership with a complete response to your comment, since they can find it on other blogs where you’ve posted the same criticism verbatim. I realize you are plugging your upcoming trustedoffer.com service, but please take the time to really look at what we’re doing before commenting. I look forward to seeing what you will launch, and if it gives consumers more control, I will be the first to applaud.

John, I fully agree that bait and switch tactics have been a major contributor to the current problems we’re seeing. Because we let users and banks post rates according to specific loan criteria (including credit score and LTV ratio), we expect that when banks report rates to us they will not bait and switch. The ones who do will get negative feedback from the community, so this creates an incentive for them not to.

By: Dan

Dan — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 17:25:09 +0000

Sometimes consumers don’t know what they really got even after they’ve closed. I think consumer-to-consumer info. would be muddy at best and those looking for information will be much more willing to share than those who’ve already closed.

By: John Challis

John Challis — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 16:04:30 +0000

Sounds like a great idea. My worry is that whenever you have a purely rate-driven play, you leave the door open for the bait and switch tactics that helped get the industry into the condition we are presently in. Transparency will the the counter to this, but it still just runs the risk of being the Bankrate 2.0 as ConsumerControl mentioned. There needs to be a heavy consumer-education piece in order for this model to truly be effective, I think. But I will certainly take a closer look.

By: Duran

Duran — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 15:49:49 +0000

This is interesting concept, we will have to wait and see if consumers actually use it, though.

Consumer Control,
I think the transparency is in the fact that you can find out what other people are receiving for rates and I think that is what they are focusing on. The ability to rate banks and opt for brokers to call you of course is nothing new, but it looks as though that is not the focus of SmartHippo. I think it really give users the chance to shop rates without forking over all the info.
You may want to look a little further into the platform to answer your questions. Which it doesn’t seem you have done.
Now I must say I have never used the product so maybe wrong.