Privacy by design
We ask for the mortgage numbers—not your identity.
MortgageWhy is being built around data minimization. The working manual checker does not require an account, bank connection, name, or address.
Information the manual checker does not need
- Your name
- Property address
- Loan or account number
- Email or phone number
- Bank username or password
Manual entry today
You enter only the payment, tax, insurance, and shortage figures needed for the estimate. The calculation runs in your browser. Analytics events record the path and completion status—not the financial amounts entered.
Refinance Decision Report
The manual Decision Report keeps the mortgage figures you enter and the report it calculates in memory in the current browser tab. The report form does not send those figures or results to MortgageWhy's servers, Google Analytics, Vercel Web Analytics, a lender, or a quote, application, or payment service. It does not put them in the page URL or browser storage. It does not create an account, request a quote, submit a loan application, contact a lender, or take a payment.
Choose Clear my mortgage data to reset the draft and remove a generated report from the page. Closing the tab also removes that in-memory state. Until you do either, someone who can use or view the same open tab may see the information, so avoid entering mortgage figures on a shared or public device.
On-device documents
PDFs and phone images are read by software running in your browser. The file is not sent to MortgageWhy or stored on a server. Raw extracted text is discarded after likely figures are identified, and only the amounts you confirm move into the calculator. Image recognition may download OCR software and English language data, but it does not send the image for remote recognition.
Optional monthly history
The monthly mortgage check can save a short summary—statement month, check status, payment amounts, and ending principal balance—in local browser storage on this device. Saving is optional. The summary is not uploaded to MortgageWhy, does not move automatically to another device, and can be cleared from the monthly-check page. Anyone using the same browser profile may be able to see it, so it should not be saved on a shared device when that would create a privacy concern.
Local monitoring calendar
Events you choose to save—such as a statement check, tax deadline, or insurance renewal—remain in local browser storage on this device. The calendar does not notify MortgageWhy and does not generate automatic alerts.
Servicer letters
The letter generator can include a name, mailing address, limited account reference, and servicer address because those items are needed in the printed letter. They stay in the current browser page and are not saved by MortgageWhy or sent automatically.
Property-tax assessment review
Assessment notices and tax bills selected for review are read locally in the browser using the same document limits described below. Extracted text is discarded after likely fields are identified. Entered values, exemptions, expanded property facts, comparable assessments and sales, tax-change and assessment-cap inputs, official-source links, property addresses, and appeal-letter details are not uploaded or saved by MortgageWhy. The address and owner name are requested only when the user chooses to prepare a printable supporting statement.
Private result sharing and product-interest events
A payment-check share image is created in the browser only after the user opens its preview. By default it contains the result category and next step—not payment amounts, property details, document information, or identifiers. The image is not uploaded or published automatically. Share-card actions, early interest in a future annual escrow reminder, and interest in a planned property-tax packet record categorical events such as the result route, screening outcome, and price variant. They do not include entered or calculated financial values, property facts, document contents, an email, or payment data. Clicking reminder interest does not schedule a reminder or collect an email.
What standard site analytics can receive
MortgageWhy currently loads Google Analytics and Vercel Web Analytics on its pages. Those services may receive ordinary visit information and, depending on their settings, interactions such as starting or submitting a form. This can include the page address, referring page, visit time, approximate location, and browser or device details. Google Analytics may use a first-party cookie or similar identifier. Vercel describes its Web Analytics as cookie-free and its stored data as anonymous and aggregated.
MortgageWhy's Decision Report code does not send a custom analytics event and does not attach mortgage figures or report results to a page-view event. Because the form does not put entries in the URL, the page address sent for an ordinary visit does not contain those entries.
If the browser or React detects a technical failure, MortgageWhy's error monitor may send its own server an error category, the page path, and a technical error reference when one is available. That limited report does not contain entered mortgage figures, calculated report results, document contents, or free-text input.
Document limits and removal
The reader accepts PDF, JPG, PNG, and WebP files up to 15 MB; PDFs are limited to 12 pages. Closing or refreshing the page drops the browser's reference to selected review documents and extracted figures. The basic payment-change reader also provides an explicit remove control. MortgageWhy does not provide cloud document storage.
A clear limitation
MortgageWhy provides an educational estimate and consistency check. It is not a mortgage servicer, lender, law firm, financial adviser, or substitute for reviewing the official notice and supporting bills. The annual escrow check tests internal consistency and identifies questions to confirm with the servicer.