How to get your home loan without going outside

Taking the advice of a mortgage broker traditionally meant making an appointment and sitting in their office while they talked through your circumstances. They told you about the deal they thought suited your needs and you sat there nodding sagely. It sometimes felt as though they were holding all the cards.

The internet is changing that - now it's the borrower who is in the driving seat. Homebuyers and those looking to remortgage can browse through details of hundreds of home loans from dozens of lenders, ranging from high-street giants to tiny local building societies.

The last few months have seen the launch of a plethora of online mortgage services. Some are new entrants to the home loans market, such as Emfinance, the mortgage broking arm of online information company Exchange Holdings. Others, such as Charcolonline and NetMortgage, have been set up by established brokers.

The online mortgage market is small but growing rapidly. Already, home loans are the most commonly researched financial product on the net, and a survey has found that more than two in five people looking to change their mortgage will consider going online to find the right deal.

So why might you want to turn to an online mortgage broking service? Probably the most obvious reason is the convenience factor. Instead of trudging down the high street collecting bumph or logging on to 101 different bank and building society websites, you may be able to find all the information you need on one site.

Charcolonline (www.charcolonline.co.uk) boasts that it carries details of "400-plus mortgages from 45-plus top lenders, all without leaving your chair". E-Loan (www.eloan.com/uk) the online service launched by the US mortgage giant of the same name, also features products from more than 40 lenders, but curiously Britain's two biggest, Halifax and Abbey National, are not among them.

NetMortgage (www.netmortgage.co.uk) which went live on April 1, claims to go one better, carrying details of mortgages from 128 lenders.

Many of the sites allow you to search for the deals that meet your particular requirements, compare products from different lenders and see what the monthly payments would be.

Borrowers typically enter their details and the search engine selects a shortlist of products that may be suitable. You can then apply online by completing an application form and emailing this to the broker.

The internet services claim they can dramatically speed up the traditional process of obtaining a mortgage.

For example, Charcolonline offers a "rapid remortgage service" which promises to give a formal mortgage offer online in just 24 hours.

But while a lot can be done electronically, you will have to sign a paper copy of the application form and post it back. There is still a legal requirement for forms to have a handwritten signature, though companies are lobbying for "electronic" signatures to be allowed.

If you arrange your mortgage through a service such as Charcolonline, NetMortgage or E-Loan, you will not have to pay a fee to them - they make their money by receiving a payment from the lender. If you were to use an "offline" mortgage broker, the fee you would pay might be around £250.

But remember that with many of the net services you are not getting any advice - at the end of the day you will have to make up your own mind about which product is best for you.

Research carried out by E-Loan found that 15% of people were drawn to the privacy they felt the net gave them. Using an online mortgage broker might appeal to those people who feel uncomfortable sitting down in a financial adviser's office and talking about their debt problems in the past, for example.

Some sites also allow the customer to track online the whole process of their mortgage, from application to completion, 24 hours a day, simply by inputting a password.

With the net services competing hard for people's custom, some are offering perks and exclusive deals to tempt homebuyers into signing up with them. Emfinance (www.emfinance.com) offers all borrowers three months' free buildings and contents insurance, and six months' free accident, sickness and unemployment insurance.

But the site is somewhat limited by the fact that it currently only offers 12 mortgage deals from six different lenders, including the Woolwich and West Bromwich building society.

For many people, particularly those who have a good idea what sort of home loan they want, the online mortgage services can represent a fast and low-cost way of financing their house purchase.

But if you are not at all sure what sort of deal you want, or your circumstances are not so clear-cut, you may feel happier sitting down and talking to an expert.