Would a compliance reviewer flag your mortgage ad?
Mortgage advertising gets caught two ways: language that promises an outcome you cannot promise, and a rate or figure nobody can source.
A screening tool, not legal review. Your compliance officer has the last word.
Free · 25 checks a day · no sign-in. We log which phrases matched — never your copy.
Why it doesn’t cry wolf
A phrase list flags everything. This doesn’t, and the difference is the part that took the longest to build.
29 negation words. “We can’t guarantee a closing date” is not blocked as a guarantee — the screen notes it and clears the piece.
Curly apostrophes count. The negator list holds “don’t” with a straight quote. Written the way a word processor actually produces it, it used to tokenise as two words and match no negator — so we don’t guarantee read as a guarantee. There were 222 of them in the corpus when we found it.
A negation has a reach. “With no side effects and permanent results” promises permanence. The word and ends what the no governs, so the second half is still caught.
Warning about a thing isn’t doing it. “If anyone offers to cover your deductible, walk away” is advice against the practice, not an offer of it.
Every one of these exists because the scan got it wrong on real copy first. When the rules are ambiguous it fails toward flagging, never toward clearing — a false alarm costs you a minute, and a miss costs you the thing you bought this for.
And what you have to include
Every checker sells the list of things you cannot say. This is the other half: the identifiers a published piece is supposed to carry in mortgage advertising.
✓ the originator’s own NMLS — checked automatically
✓ Equal Housing Lender — checked automatically
Both are pattern-matched against the copy you paste, so a missing one is caught rather than assumed.
Why this rule set catches people out
Advertising a rate pulls in trigger-term obligations, and words like “guaranteed approval” describe a decision no originator gets to make before underwriting.
Real examples, and how to rewrite them
Every flag below is genuine output from the checker above — not an illustration. Paste any of them in and you will get the same result.
Flagged
“Guaranteed approval with no credit check. We have the lowest rates in Indiana, risk free.”
Publishable
“Pre-qualification in about ten minutes, with a credit review as part of the process. We will show you where your rate lands against today’s market.”
Flagged
“Call today for a free consultation. Rates as low as 4.5% APR for qualified borrowers.”
Publishable
“Call for a free consultation and we will quote today’s rate for your file, with the APR and terms in writing.”
Questions
Why was my rate flagged and not blocked?
An unsourced figure is a different finding from a prohibited phrase. It is asking you to attach a source or cut the number, not telling you the ad is unpublishable.
Is “lowest rate” really prohibited?
As an unqualified superlative, yes. It is a claim about every other lender in the market that you would have to be able to substantiate.
Does it check my NMLS and Equal Housing disclosures?
Missing disclosures are part of what the engine screens for. Pick the mortgage vertical so the right rulebook applies.
Does this replace compliance review?
No. It is a screening tool that catches the common flags before a human ever sees the draft.
Add-on · $49/month
The gate on its own
This page is the free front of the same engine. The subscription opens all seven rule sets — 258 prohibited phrases, plus the ones you add — and checks a screenshot or a link, not just pasted text.
Already included in Starter, Pro and Teams. This is for people who want the checking without the marketing around it.
This runs on every draft, automatically
The checker on this page is the public front of the gate that screens everything our marketing system writes for you — before it reaches your queue, in your industry’s rulebook, with a dated record you keep.