Google Advisor Wants to Help You Find a Better Credit Card, Mortgage and Bank Account
For a while now, Google has offered consumers the ability to compare mortgage rates and other financial products. For the most part, though, these products flew under the radar, even as Google continued to add new products like CDs, checking and savings accounts and credit cards to this comparison tool. This changes today, though, as Google just rolled out its new Google Advisor tool. With Google Advisor, users can compare mortgage rates, find the best credit cards (do prefer cash back? a low APR? no annual fee?) and other bank products like CDs, checking and savings accounts. For the time being, this new tool will only be available in the U.s.
As Google notes, Advisor is “designed to help you quickly find relevant financial products from many providers and compare them side-by-side.” The company, of course, also aims to make some money off this product. While it won’t profit from your credit card applications and newly opened bank accounts, Google says that it will get paid whenever “when you contact a mortgage lender through Google Advisor.”
With regards to its personal finance services, Google currently doesn’t have a product that could rival a tool like Mint. Judging from today’s launch, it looks as if the company is trying to move into this business, though. Mint’s business model – just like the Google Advisor’s – relies mostly on affiliate fees it collects when its users sign up for a new financial product its tools recommend.