You can now pay your mortgage with Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa. Find out how.
One of the most underrated tech that happened in the past few years is the enabling of voice commands. These spawned the Siris and the Cortanas of our age. Driving? Ask your device assistant to call mom. Making an essay? Just voice-type it. It’s an incredible tech that remains underdeveloped and perhaps still unappreciated by many. But in a few years, more and more people are set to dabble into voice-commanded tasks as more businesses embrace the benefits of its convenience.
Take Amazon’s Alexa. In a recent announcement, Amazon revealed that you can now tell your Echo device assistant to pay your mortgage for you. This is made possible by Amazon’s partnership with Rocket Mortgage by Quicken Loans.
But paying your mortgage is not the only feature Alexa can now do. You can also ask Alexa your remaining loan balance, when your payments are due, your payment and escrow amount, your mortgage type, the time left until your loan is paid off, and what the current interest rates are using only voice activation.
CEO of Quicken Loans Jay Farner says the move is part of the company’s goal to simplify homeownership for millions of buyers.
“Through proprietary technology like Rocket Mortgage, Quicken Loans continues to deliver radical simplicity and crystal-clear transparency for all homebuyers and those looking to refinance their existing homes. Our outstanding Rocket Mortgage technology team in Detroit developed this new skill for Alexa and they have shown once again why they are the elite FinTech development group in the country.”
Here’s how to set up your Echo’s Rocket Mortgage Skill:
- Open the Amazon Alexa app on your phone or tablet or sign in to your Amazon account.
- Select the menu button on the top-left hand corner. Tap Skills and search for Rocket Mortgage from the results page. Then click Enable.
- You will then be redirected to a screen where you can sign in with your Quicken Loans account credentials and agree to make payments through voice command. You will be asked to add a four-digit number as your PIN.
- To pay, activate Alexa using your Echo’s wake words (e.g. Echo, Alexa, Amazon Echo, etc.) then say either:
- Alexa, open Rocket Mortgage.” After Alexa responds, say, “Pay my mortgage.”
- “Alexa, tell Rocket Mortgage to pay my mortgage.”
5. The voice assistant will then ask you to give the house number from your property address and your PIN in order to confirm your request.
This new level of convenience marks a first in an industry that is facing a rapid shift in paradigm with its technological disruption. As more tech players enter the game, the mortgage industry is bound to take a significant reshaping in the next few years. Platforms will improve to streamline the whole acquisition process and companies will find more innovative ways to engage their consumer base. Amazon and Quicken Loan’s partnership is a great leap towards that end.