Is Google in the Consumer Loan Business?

Posted by ryan
at 10:30 AM on Tuesday, March 06, 2007

I recently got a new car loan from Capital One and upon logging into my online account console I saw that the loan was titled ‘Google Auto Loan’:

I did not get to the Capital One site through an adwords ad nor did I through a Google search.

Does anybody have any insight on this – is Google experimenting with the consumer loan business? It’s an interesting bit of speculation. I could see it going down like this:

  1. Google partners with a traditional financing company (i.e. Capital One).
  2. Whenever a traditional new loan application comes into the financing company, Google does a parallel query against what Google knows of the person (using their name, email address etc…). Google knows my search history, knows that I have a GMail account (since that’s the email address I gave to Capital One), knows a lot of my daily habits (as I use Google Reader for my feeds). This information probably paints a pretty good picture of what kind of person I am and, as a result, what kind of credit risk I am.
  3. The combined methods of Google and Capital One are able to drill much deeper into my suitability for a competitive loan than straight conventional methods. Combined with the fact that my loan type specifies automatic withdrawals from my bank account (which further reduces my account overhead) I am offered a great loan rate while Google (almost acting as a co-signer) shares the investment risk with Capital One and takes part in the loan profits.

Ludicrous?

tags: google, loans, capital one

Comments

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  1. Brittain – March 06, 2007 @ 12:15 PM

    Ryan,

    You seem remarkably comfortable with what looks like three (by my count) different invasions of your privacy. Am I reading you right?

    Is there something in the signup for these Google services that states they’ll be sharing your data stream with outside businesses for their commercial benefit?

  2. Evan – March 06, 2007 @ 02:38 PM

    I bet you it’s nothing of the sort-it’s some kind of marketing text that got misplaced. In other words, “Google” in this context is a verb, not a noun-they’re urging you to google for “AUTO LOAN”.

    In fact, if you do google for “AUTO LOAN”, Capital One is the first sponsored link.

    Another possibility is that they’re by default assuming that you came in via the Google sponsored link, just because you got there via the web site or something.

  3. Evan – March 06, 2007 @ 02:40 PM

    Ah, Textile, how I loathe thee.

    The struck-out words in the above comment should in fact not be struck out.

  4. Ryan – March 06, 2007 @ 03:17 PM

    Brittain: If this were really the case I would not mind my privacy being invaded as it allowed me to be better off financially. But what a slippery slope…

    Evan: Your theories are probably more in-line with reality. But what’s the fun in that?

  5. Nathan – March 06, 2007 @ 04:03 PM

    The most likely scenario is that you completed the auto loan request through the capital one web site, which you probably reached through a google search. CapitalOne would simply tag your session on their site and the completion of the online form with the referrer (organic search) or the campaign id (adword buys). In most cases they have created “Profiles” through their web analytics software using keywords like “Google” or something similar. These are pretty standard practices for measuring ROI (ROI) of online marketing efforts. FYI tracking like this is also possible through phone numbers on their site but requires much more advanced web site functionality and phone systems, not out of the question, but probably not the case here. More information on what happened to get you to the CapitalOne site would clarify the actual use case.

  6. Ryan – March 06, 2007 @ 08:11 PM

    Nathan – I agree this makes the most sense. But as I said before, I went directly to the capital one site as in I typed the URL into my browser when I applied for the loan.

    Queue the spooky music..

  7. Evan – March 06, 2007 @ 08:29 PM

    Ryan: True dat. It probably involves the Trilateral Commission.

    Jack Ruby…Ruby on Rails…the truth is out there.

  8. Justin – March 06, 2007 @ 08:51 PM

    This is a little off topic but on the same note in privacy invasion. I actually received a piece of snail mail at my girlfriends address last night. Well, actually, it is my girlfriends aunty’s address (which is where her mail is delivered, but not where she lives)

    I have absolutely no idea how they could put me at that address. It creeped me out.

  9. Sam Aaron – March 06, 2007 @ 09:26 PM

    Ludicrous no, scary yes.

  10. Garry – May 05, 2007 @ 10:55 AM

    It would be great business for Google.