Customers at Huntington Bancshares can now take the unusual step of filling out mortgage applications at home on their personal computers.
Working with a new software package developed by the Columbus, Ohio, company's mortgage bank, customers supply data on savings, credit, and employment on-line.
The information is then transmitted to Huntington Mortgage Co. Customers can receive an approval within three business days.
"Using today's technology, customers are completing this at their convenience," said R. Frederick Taylor, president of Huntington Mortgage Co.
Customers can plug in various combinations of loan amount, interest rate, and points to gauge monthly payments. The software also allows applicants to put in the amount of payment they want to make each month to determine how costly a house they can afford.
Huntington Mortgage has sent out about 300 of the software packages in the past couple of months, and is now starting to receive applications, Mr. Taylor said.
The vast majority of the forms are properly filled out and in the midst of being processed, he said.
Industry watchers say the program is novel, and will fill a niche among computer users.
"There's a group of people out there who are very much wedded to their PCs and would very much want to do this on it," said William O. Adoch, chairman of Synergistics, a technology consulting firm in Atlanta.
The software also takes the intimidation out of the application process, Mr. Adoch said.
"This way, applicants don't have to do it face-to-face" with a loan officer, he said. "If they're rejected it's not such a personal disappointment."
Aside from benefiting customers, the system will serve Huntington Bancshares well, another consultant said.
"It certainly would help in terms of reducing the cost of entering data," said Barbara Smiley, an analyst with Tower Group, Boston.
