Northern Rock improves its award-winning mortgage website

Less than six months after scooping a prestigious award for ‘best use of digital’, Northern Rock has further enhanced its mortgage website with a video guide, to help home-buyers through the exciting but sometimes daunting journey of buying their first property.

Northern Rock’s mortgage website (northernrock.co.uk/mortgages/), was launched in April last year, and in September won the ‘best use of digital’ accolade at Communicate Magazine’s Digital Impact Awards 2010, held to celebrate excellence in digital stakeholder communications. The site was also named among the contenders for the Financial Services category of the British Interactive Media Association (BIMA)’s annual awards last year, and highly commended for best use of technology at the Mortgage Finance Gazette Awards.

A brand new, animated video guide has now been added to the website, to help steer customers step-by-step through the house-buying process. Using a simple 10-step format, each of the segments covers a different area of the house purchase journey, from setting an affordable budget at the outset, right through to exchange and completion.

The video guide adds a new dimension to the site which is already populated with useful advice and information for different mortgage customer groups. The site also includes a range of interactive tools such as a jargon buster, budget planner and overpayment calculator to help take the complexity out of selecting a mortgage and buying a home.

Andy Tate, Customer and Commercial Director at Northern Rock said: “Buying your first home can be a daunting prospect and we’re always looking to help improve this journey for our customers. This video-guide is a great addition to a website which has already proven to be a very effective tool for those who want to find out more about getting a mortgage and stepping onto the property ladder.”