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Priceline offers mortgages
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March 27, 2000: 4:17 p.m. ET
Borrowers can have an answer about a mortgage in as little as five minutes
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - It started with airline tickets, then hotel rooms and groceries. Now Priceline.com has jumped into home financing, allowing Net surfers to name their own price for a mortgage.
Priceline.com Chairman and CEO Jay Walker said on CNNfn's Before Hours television program Monday that mortgages are an area where consumers have little or no preference who the lender is. (339K WAV or 339K AIFF)
 The mortgage bidding process, which began late last year, is based on Priceline.com's standard name-your-price system. Once the customer submits a request to PricelineMortgage, it is sent to several participating lenders. The borrower is notified via e-mail within six business hours whether their rate has been accepted. If the bid is accepted, the rate is immediately locked in and the lender charges your credit card $200 as a "good faith" deposit. That money is applied as a credit on your closing cost.
Walker said the savings come from eliminating the lender's costs in finding suitable customers. (308K WAV or 308K AIFF)
He added that with PricelineMortgage, customers can get an answer in as little as five minutes.
As the range of goods and services on Priceline.com (PCLN: Research, Estimates) continues to expand - long distance phone calls and gasoline are on the horizon - Walker likened his company to an "old economy" powerhouse.
"Saving money turns out to be the universal application," Walker said. "That's why Wal-Mart is as big as Wal-Mart is."
Shares of Stamford, Conn.-based Priceline.com rose 1-1/4 to 91-3/4 in late trading on the Nasdaq Monday. The company announced in January that it expects revenues of the year 2000 to exceed $1 billion. 
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Priceline.com
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