Online Mortgage Rates? Ooh-la-la…

When Paris-based online mortgage broker Meilleurtaux launched in 1999, founder and chief executive Christophe Cremer had a hard time convincing banks to work with him. Though similar sites in the U.S. such as E-Loan (BPOP) had long enjoyed success, bankers across the Atlantic were skeptical Meilleurtaux [French for “best rate”] would take off. Cremer forged ahead anyway — and soon racked up the numbers to sway any disbeliever.

“I showed them the site was getting over 40,000 applications a month and that it wouldn’t be profitable for them not to work with us,” he says. Meilleurtaux now partners with all French banks to negotiate low interest rates for customers, who file mortgage applications online and are guided through the loan process by the company’s financial advisers.

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