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Cardiff broker launches retail cashback website linked to mortgage balance

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  • 13/02/2020
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Cardiff broker launches retail cashback website linked to mortgage balance
A Cardiff based mortgage broker has adapted the popular retail cashback offer, where shoppers earn rewards from their favourite stores, to help borrowers pay off their mortgages quicker.

 

Accelerate My Mortgage (AMM) was launched last week after a month long pilot by the founder of RateSwitch, Lee Flavin (pictured).

Using the same principle as reward websites such as Quidco and TopCashback, homeowners who visit online retailers through the Accelerate My Mortgage website earn cashback which is automatically paid off their mortgage once they have built up a balance of £50.

Over the last 12 months, Flavin and co-founder Chris Evans have signed up more than 40 retailers to the website. Flavin said the most popular brands among customers so far have been AO, Boots, Hotels.com, John Lewis and Trainline. Each retailer offers a different percentage of cash back you can earn on your purchase, for example 2.5 per cent. Homeowners can make big purchases such as holidays, furniture and electronics through the site, as well as every day smaller purchases such as takeaway pizza, their weekly supermarket shop, or toiletries and cosmetics.

Flavin built the service to increase his advice firm’s engagement with their mortgage clients throughout the life of their loan.

He said: “Brokers add incredible value to their client’s lives and financial wellbeing throughout the lifetime of any mortgage, but it can be very hard to keep them engaged from one year to the next. This site allows us to acquire new customers because we are offering a unique service, and retain our clients through regular interaction.”

To sign up for the cashback rewards, borrowers need to create an account and upload information about their mortgage including when their mortgage deal expires. However, to earn rewards shoppers do not need to use AMM to arrange their mortgage.

Seven months before the end of the deal term, borrowers will receive emails on a monthly basis from AMM letting them know when their fixed rate will expire and offering to help them look for a new deal. They also receive alerts on screen when they log in. Users can select the switch function on the site and arrange a call back for a fully advised review of their mortgage.

The site also has an overpayment calculator which is linked to their mortgage details so they can play around with their monthly payment to see what impact it has on their balance.

Flavin added: “Our mission is to help homeowners pay their mortgage off faster, whatever their circumstances and wherever they are in their mortgage journey.

“Mortgage rewards aren’t a gimmick – we’re already partnered with some of the UK’s leading retailers and the list is growing by the week. “Some users have earned up to £40 of cashback in a single purchase.”

AMM says 100 per cent of the cashback is passed on to shoppers and it does not receive a cut of the rewards. Its service is free to users.

Since its launch three years ago, RateSwitch has built up a book of more than 3,000 customers which were contacted about the overpayment cash back facility at the start of the year to pilot the proposition.

Rateswitch was supported by Wales’ first tech accelerator the Ideas Fund, which helped launch the service after fund administrators at TechHub Swansea spotted its potential. The firm secured investment from Finance Wales prior to launching.

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