The best way to explain the KeyFacts Standard, is to quote an extract from Mortgage Free Debt Free – 5 Steps to the Fast Track:

As we talked about in “Swallowing the standard”, the term ‘standard’ means “a measure serving as a basis by which others can be compared”.

What you have just read about is a credit quote produced to the KeyFacts Standard. It will not apply to credit quotes generated by other means, so it pays to look out for the KeyFacts mark.

It looks like this:

Any quote bearing the KeyFacts mark has been developed strictly adhering to seven important ethical standards:

1.      The consumer needs are the most important of all.

2.      Results must be comprehensive and personalised to the individual consumer situation.

3.      Facts affecting the core usability of any loan or service must be accessible, understandable and comparable for the consumer.

4.      Costs to establish, maintain and close a loan or service must be clearly available, understandable and simple for the consumer to compare.

5.      Calculations must follow industry standard formulas where they exist and be available for independent audit.

6.      Formulas and calculation methods must be identical across all similar tools for any lender, any loan, any loan amount or any service.

7.      A version of each tool must be publicly accessible; use identical formulas and calculation methods to all similar tools endorsed with the KeyFacts mark; and be free for anyone to use as often as they like, whenever they like for whatever loan, lender or service they like.

These seven ethical standards are critical to ensure that each quote honestly represents the key areas that affect your financial outcome as a borrower. Skip just one of those ethical standards and your results become, well, less ethical.

Pop back to “Taking out the Garbage” where we learned that a loan with an Advertised Comparison Rate just 0.01% higher than a competitors, cost over $30,000 more when borrowing $350,000. That’s because Advertised Comparison Rates do not comply with any of the 7 principles that define the KeyFacts Standard. Most ‘in-house’ mortgage broker software would struggle to meet just two.