You want to be finally set for your retirement years. Most people do. Sometimes the best laid plans do not work out. For example you might have a retirement fund, but it got hit severely with stock market issues. You may have needed to use some funds to help out your children or grandchildren. The point is you are here because you want to have financial freedom and hope that the best equity release calculators can help you. Yet, you might be hesitant to even use the calculators online when you see what they ask for. Find out how to differentiate the best calculators from those that are data mining.
Does the Website Look Professional?
Some websites look more professional than others even when dealing with equity release calculators. There are several ways you can tell whether the website is actually a decent information site and worthy of your attention. The first thing you want to do is look at the ‘About Us’ page. If the page offers an exact date for when the website was launched, plus a decent history of the company or people running the site you can trust they are professional. Take a look at their blog, news, or article area to see what types of information they provide to you. Is the writing on the site professional or filled with grammatical errors one after another? Do you learn something from the content of the site or is it just marketing? A professional site will have more than looks it will have depth in all areas as well as provide you the data you want to know from the calculator.
Are Equity Release Websites Just Acquiring Your Data?
A part of determine whether a website is worthy of your information for calculating potential equity release amounts is the data and information you are asked for. For example, say you pull up a website and all it has on the home page is the calculator asking for your name, phone, email, address, sex, age, and property value. There is also a field to fill out with contact information to log-in or sign-up, but there is no information given to you about how the calculator works or what it will provide. This type of site is just asking for your data and not giving you information in return. An equity release calculator should work both ways – provide the calculation you require to establish the maximum release of equity and for the equity release broker to have a chance to discuss the potential of doing your business with one of their equity release advisers.
Are Mandatory Fields Relevant to the Information you Want?
You want certain information. In fact you want to know if you can afford to take out equity from your home, whether it is in the form of a lifetime mortgage or home reversion. You ultimately want to get results from the data you input. This goes along with separating data mining sites out from the information sites. If the mandatory fields as just about your name, email, and telephone and not about your age, health, and property value the site is just trying to get your information. Another consideration is if you fill out the mandatory information with fake data do you still get results from the calculator. This is a great way to test the site.
Some sites are extremely smart and know when you have not entered a proper name, email, or telephone number. For instance if you put xxxxxx xxxxx for your first and last name plus xxxxx@xxxx.com and 010000000 for the telephone number and you receive results they are not data mining, but trying to give accurate estimates of your lifetime mortgage options. If the site says you have not provided correct data in the mandatory fields and withhold the calculation result it is a data mining site.
Is the Website just Marketing Equity Releases?
When a website is just trying to market to you it means they are data mining. They are trying to get your information so they can market to you and what your interests are rather than supply you with relevant accurate details. Always check their privacy policy and T&C’s to see if this is genuinely allowed.
A good website is going to work for your and the other side. Each party will provide information that is helpful to the other person. For the website they get marketing details and learn what you are most interested in as a means of sending you information based on your needs. You get the data results you wanted to see, in other words the calculation of loan to value the company or companies are willing to provide you with for equity. Since you made an enquiry the website can then make their enquiry and help answer any questions you might have about the results.
The Results
The equity release results you receive from the equity release calculator can help you find the solution you are looking for with regards to your financial needs. You know what you hope to gain from an equity release mortgage or at least you have a basic idea. You want enough funds to live your life comfortably. You know whether there are health issues that may require you to sell your home and seek assisted living. You understand what your current retirement funding offers and if you wish to provide your children and grandchildren with their inheritance while you are still alive.
The results can tell you what is possible. It will not tell you how you can use it or give you a “set in stone” loan to value result. This is an important distinction when talking about calculators. You cannot believe that the results you receive are wholly accurate and will not change. A lot of factors can affect the results you received from the calculator. You use the results to your advantage & gain a sense of perspective as to how much you can look forward to achieving in your retirement.
For instance, if you ball-parked the property value based on current home sales found on Zoopla you could be out by £50,000 either over or under valuing your property. This means the estimate of available funds will also be over or under the actual amount a company can truly provide you. This is where finding a professional website with helpful advisers can come in handy, particularly when you are ready to talk numbers and potential lifetime mortgages.
