How quote collecting actually works
Getting more than one quote: marketplaces, brokers, and applying directly
What happens when you submit a marketplace form
LendingTree is not a lender. Its own licensing page describes it as a marketing lead generator that is required to be licensed as a mortgage broker, and states that it does not take applications, make loans, or make credit decisions. Its services, in its words, "are only administrative," and the inquiry you submit "is NOT an application for credit."
When you complete a mortgage request, LendingTree matches your information against its network partners' criteria and transmits it to up to five of them. That number is not marketing shorthand. LendingTree's annual report tells investors the request "is automatically transmitted to up to five participating Network Partners," and that because of this, "up to five match fees may be generated from a single consumer request form." Each of those lenders paid to receive your file. LendingTree's own mortgage page says they "will call to compete for your business." Submitting the form is also express written consent to receive calls and texts from those lenders, including automated ones, even if your number is on a Do Not Call list.
So expect a busy day or two. What you get for it is several lenders pricing the same file in the same week, which is the comparison the Loan Estimate rule was built to make possible. Freddie Mac's research associates one additional quote with about $1,500 in savings over the life of the loan and five quotes with about $3,000; its 2023 update found borrowers who shopped in the high-rate months of late 2022 saved roughly $600 to $1,200 a year.
What you do not get is representation. Except where a state provides otherwise, LendingTree states it is not your agent and not the lender's, and does not endorse any lender's products. That is the line between a marketplace and an independent broker, who in some states, Minnesota among them, owes you an agency duty. And it is different again from applying to two or three lenders yourself, which spends your time instead of your phone number.
What it does to your credit
LendingTree performs a soft credit inquiry to match you, which does not affect your score. A hard inquiry comes later, from whichever lender you actually apply with. Credit models treat multiple mortgage inquiries inside a shopping window as a single event: the CFPB describes a 45-day window under current scoring models, and older FICO versions use 14 days, so the conservative move is to compress your shopping into about two weeks.
Check your own credit before anyone else does
Pull your reports before you shop, so an error does not surface for the first time inside a lender's underwriting. The free way is AnnualCreditReport.com, the federally authorized source, which now offers free weekly reports from all three bureaus. It costs nothing and this site earns nothing from it.
If you want a running score and alerts during the shopping window instead of one-time reports, SmartCredit is a paid monitoring subscription with a $1 trial week. Know one thing going in: the score any consumer monitoring service shows you is typically FICO 8 or VantageScore, not the older mortgage FICO models (2, 4, and 5) lenders actually pull, so treat it as a trend line, not the number your rate will be priced on.
Referral disclosure: this site may earn a fee if you start a SmartCredit trial through this link. The free federal report option above earns this site nothing, and neither changes what you pay.
How to stop the calls afterward
If you are done shopping, tell each lender that contacted you that you are no longer in the market, and submit LendingTree's internal do-not-call request through its contact page or at 1-888-272-1355, which notifies partners matched in the last 30 days. Knowing the exit exists is a fair thing to know before you walk in.
Three ways to reach more than one lender
An independent broker. One application, shopped to wholesale lenders you cannot reach directly. Paid by the lender that funds the loan, typically 1 to 2.75 percent of the amount. In some states, Minnesota among them, the broker is your agent and owes you a duty of good faith. How working with a broker works
A marketplace. One form, transmitted to as many as five lenders who each paid to receive it and who will call you. Fast, and it produces real competing quotes. Nobody there represents you: LendingTree states it is not your agent and not the lender's, and does not endorse any of them. What happens after you submit
Applying directly. You contact two or three lenders yourself. It spends your afternoon instead of your phone number, and no one resells your file.
Referral disclosure: this site may earn a fee if you request quotes through the LendingTree link above. No fee is paid on the other two paths, and none of this changes the quotes you receive.
If you are VA-eligible
VA loans price differently from conventional loans: no down payment requirement, no monthly mortgage insurance, and a one-time funding fee that a lender who rarely writes VA loans may quote badly. If you are a veteran, service member, or eligible surviving spouse, it is worth collecting at least one quote from a lender that specializes in them. Veterans United, the consumer brand of Mortgage Research Center, has been the largest VA purchase lender by volume for years; unlike a marketplace, it is a single direct lender, so one company receives your request and one company calls. Compare its quote against your bank or credit union and any generalist quotes you collect, the same way you would compare any two Loan Estimates.
Referral disclosure: this site may earn a fee if you request a quote through this link. A referral fee never changes the quote you receive, and no lender pays to appear in the data tables on this site or to be described a certain way.
The lender is one half of your transaction team. If you are buying and have not settled on an agent, the same referral economics operate on that side of the table too; the agents page compares the major matching services and who pays whom before you hand out your phone number there as well.
Sources
- Marketing lead generator, licensed as a mortgage broker, does not take applications or make credit decisions, services "are only administrative," inquiry "is NOT an application for credit": LendingTree, Licenses and Disclosures
- Requests "automatically transmitted to up to five participating Network Partners" and "up to five match fees may be generated from a single consumer request form": LendingTree, Inc., Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025, filed March 9, 2026 (SEC EDGAR)
- Matched lenders "will call to compete for your business": LendingTree, mortgage rates page
- Express written consent to autodialed and prerecorded calls and texts regardless of Do Not Call status: LendingTree, Terms of Use
- Soft credit inquiry at matching: LendingTree, FAQ
- 45-day single-inquiry shopping window: CFPB, what happens when a lender checks my credit; 14 days under older FICO versions: myFICO, rate shopping
- Savings from additional quotes: Freddie Mac Insight, April 2018 (PDF) and Freddie Mac Insight, February 2023
- Do-not-call request and the 1-888-272-1355 number: LendingTree, contact page
- Minnesota's agency duty for mortgage brokers: Minn. Stat. section 58.161
Mortgage Rulebook is an independent educational site and is not a lender, broker, or law firm. Nothing here is legal or financial advice.