AI Answering Service for Mortgage Brokers: Cost and What It May Say

On published plans a mortgage broker pays roughly $50 to $105 a month for 60 calls, $80 to $270 for 150 and $130 to $720 for 400, depending on the vendor. The assistant must never quote a rate or payment, say whether anyone qualifies, recommend a product or promise an outcome. It takes details and books a call-back.

Price is the easy half. A cheap plan you cannot edit leaves the never-say rules in the vendor's hands, and the call that goes wrong is the one where the assistant tries to be helpful. The figures below come from each vendor's pricing page in November 2026 and assume a three-minute call, so rerun them with your own call log before you commit.

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Price bands, from message-taking to full control

Four bands cover what brokers will meet. The plans listed are the ones on the vendors' own pages; the last band is a human service, there for comparison.

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Vendors count different things. Upfirst and Smith.ai bill per call, Dialzara and Rosie per minute, and Goodcall per unique caller, which suits a broker because the same borrower may ring several times during one case. The next table prices the cheapest plan that covers each volume, adding published overage where there is any. Rosie publishes no overage, so its figures use the smallest plan that fits the minutes.

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Those sums are how the ranges in the opening paragraph arise: $49 to $105 at 60 calls, $79 to $270 at 150, $129 to $717 at 400. For a fuller explanation of why per-minute and per-call pricing diverge, see the tutorial on per-minute versus monthly answering plans.

The cheapest plan that covers the volume is not always the plan a broker should buy. Three features push the price up, and each matters for a regulated business. Live transfer to a broker: Rosie lists it from Scale at $149, Dialzara from Elite at $349, and Upfirst on every plan. Editing the script yourself: Dialzara lists a self-editable prompt from Plus at $199, while Smith.ai keeps custom AI prompting for Enterprise. Recordings and transcripts: Rosie, Upfirst and Smith.ai list them, whereas the Dialzara and Goodcall pages do not mention recording, so ask before you assume.

The never-say list, one row per topic

Write the rules as topics, not as a general "don't give advice" line. An assistant given a vague rule will still answer "roughly what rate are people getting?" because it sounds like small talk. The table pairs each topic with what the assistant may say, what it must never say, and the line it uses when the caller pushes. What counts as advice, or as a promotion, differs by place, so have your compliance adviser sign off the final wording. The tutorial on what mortgage brokers can automate with AI and what stays advice draws the same boundary for the rest of the practice.

Five more rows cover what happens around the money talk: live files, personal data, honesty about being automated, financial difficulty and legal questions.

The rules as instructions the vendor's setup can hold

Tables persuade the owner; instructions control the assistant. Below is a filled-in version to adapt. Smith.ai's plan grid lists custom AI prompting under Enterprise only, and Dialzara lists a self-editable prompt from Plus, so on other plans you may need to send these lines to the vendor's setup team and ask them to apply the text and show it back to you. Whoever applies it, keep your own copy, because it is the document your compliance adviser signed.

You are the automated phone assistant for [Firm name], a mortgage
brokerage. Open every call with: "Thanks for calling [Firm name].
I'm an automated assistant, and calls are recorded so the team can
follow up. How can I help?"

Your job is to take the caller's details and arrange a call-back
from a broker. You are not a broker and you give no advice.

Never: quote or estimate a rate, APR, payment or fee. Say or imply
whether anyone will qualify, how much they can borrow, or whether
they can afford a property. Recommend or compare products, lenders
or terms. Promise a date, outcome or approval. Comment on credit
scores or checks. Give a legal or tax view. Confirm whether anyone
is a client or discuss any file. Ask for ID numbers, bank details
or card numbers.

If asked for any of those, say: "I can't help with that on the
phone, but a broker can. May I take your details so [Name] can
call you back [today / at the time we agree]?"

Transfer to [duty broker number] at once, or if nobody answers
take a message and text an alert to [alert number], when the
caller mentions: offer accepted, rate or offer expiring,
completion or exchange date, valuation booked, declined, complaint,
behind on payments, repossession, bereavement, divorce, job loss.

End by repeating the call-back time and number, and say the broker
will confirm everything by phone.

Two details do most of the work. The opening line tells the caller they are speaking to software and that the call is recorded, which settles two common complaints before they start. The transfer list uses the words callers actually use when a deadline or a hardship is close, not abstract categories, because a worried caller never uses your category names. Add your own: a referrer's name, a lender you work with often, the phrase your clients use for "rate lock".

A three-broker team at 150 calls a month, priced in full

Consider a firm of three brokers and one part-time assistant, taking about 150 inbound calls a month at three minutes each, with a duty broker free to accept a transfer during office hours (all figures illustrative). Four plans fit that profile. The table adds the features this team cares about, as each pricing page states them.

None of the four ticks every box on its pricing page, which is normal. The decision is which gaps you can close with one question to the vendor. Upfirst and Rosie are the cheapest and list transfer and recording; whether you can edit the instructions yourself is the open question for both. Dialzara gives script control but, on the page I read, puts transfer at $349. Smith.ai costs most per call and, on Pro, leaves the script to the vendor.

Say the team picks Rosie Scale at $149. The subscription is the smaller part of the bill. Setup is eight hours writing the script, loading answers to common questions and running the trap calls below; at an internal $50 an hour that is $400 once. Reviewing a sample of transcripts takes about an hour a week, four hours a month, or $200 a month. Year one comes to 12 × $149 = $1,788, plus $400, plus 12 × $200 = $2,400, a total of $4,588.

If your average fee per completed case is $2,500 (use your own figure), two extra completed cases a year cover that total. If you cannot point to two enquiries a year lost to unanswered calls, count missed calls on your phone log for two weeks before buying anything.

The same 150 calls on Smith.ai's human plans cost $1,440: the 90-call Basic plan at $810 plus 60 more calls at $10.50, which is $630. That is nearly ten times Rosie's $149, and it is the case for using the assistant for first contact while a person handles the calls on the transfer list.

An intake script that collects enough and nothing risky

The intake script is the other half of the safety design. Every question you add is a place for the assistant to wander, and every answer is stored in the vendor's call history. Collect what a broker needs to return the call with the right person and the right urgency, and leave the financial detail for the secure form or the call itself. A filled-in version:

1. "Are you looking to buy, refinance or switch lender, or is this
   about an application already open with us?"
   - Open application: take name and number, flag EXISTING CLIENT,
     promise a same-day call from the case handler, stop here.
2. "May I take your name?" (ask for the spelling)
3. "What's the best number to reach you?" Read it back in groups
   of three or four digits and ask the caller to confirm.
4. "Is there an email address for the secure link?"
5. "Where are you at: just starting to look, viewing, offer
   accepted, or something else?"
6. "Is there a date that matters, such as an offer or rate
   expiring, or a completion date?" (any date inside seven days:
   transfer)
7. "Did anyone refer you?" (name of person or firm)
8. "When is a good time for a call? We can ring today between
   [time] and [time], or tomorrow morning."
9. "May we text you the secure link and a confirmation?"
Close: repeat the call-back time and number.

What stays out is as deliberate as what goes in: income, employer, credit history, ID numbers, bank details and the size of the loan. Those belong in the firm's secure application link or on the broker's call. If you want to see what happens after intake, the tutorial on moving from enquiry to fact find with AI picks up where this script ends.

Call-back promises the team can keep

A call-back promise is only as good as the person who has to make the call. Set a promise for each type of caller, have the assistant say the same time that your alert system uses, and count the misses.

The times above are illustrative; set ones your rota can meet. Each Friday, export the week's calls and count promises missed. Goodcall's page lists call history for 30, 90 or unlimited days by plan, and other vendors differ, so export before anything expires. More than two misses a month is a staffing problem, not an assistant problem: change the promise or the rota, not the wording.

Ten trap calls to run before the line goes live

Ring the assistant yourself, from a different phone, and ask these in your own words. Run each twice, once politely and once pushing back with "just a rough idea". The general method for trial calls is in the tutorial on test calls to run in the first week; these ten are specific to a brokerage.

A failing reply and its fix

Here is an illustrative failure on trap 2. The assistant answered: "With $105,000 between you, most lenders go to about four and a half times that, so around $470,000. You should be fine." That reply breaks three rows of the never-say table at once: a borrowing multiple, a maximum loan and a reassurance about qualifying. It also sounds warm and competent, which is why it is dangerous.

The fix has two parts. Add "borrowing multiples, income calculations and any phrase like 'you should be fine'" to the never list, because the assistant needs the banned phrasing spelled out. Then rerun trap 2 five times, and again with variations such as "just ballpark it" or "my friend got four times his salary". The passing reply is short: "I can't estimate what you could borrow, because that depends on your full picture. A broker can go through it with you today. What's the best number to reach you?" If any of the five runs slips, the instruction is not firm enough; tighten it and test again before the line goes live.

Costs that arrive after the first invoice

The plan price is not the whole bill. Five items to ask about before signing:

• Overage. Goodcall lists 79 cents, 26 cents or 15 cents per extra caller by plan, Dialzara $0.48 down to $0.35 a minute, and Smith.ai $3 down to $2.17 a call. Rosie's page publishes none, so ask for it in writing.
• Text messages. Dialzara lists its SMS agent at $19 a month plus $0.05 per AI message, with carrier fees passed through, and says it is free when bundled with an inbound voice plan. Ask exactly what "free" covers. The tutorial on Dialzara's add-ons weighs this one.
• The link to your CRM. If calls reach your CRM through Zapier, Zapier's own plan applies. Its Free plan allows 100 tasks a month and two-step Zaps only, so a Zap that creates one record per call runs out before the 150th call; the entry paid plan lists $19.99 a month billed annually for 750 tasks.
• Recording fees. Smith.ai's human plans charge $0.25 a call for recording. The AI plans list recording within the plan, but confirm that for the plan you pick.
• Your own number. Forwarding your existing line usually works, though vendors differ on how. The tutorial on keeping your own number covers the options.

Recording, disclosure and where the transcripts end up

The assistant's first-contact call is a recorded, transcribed record held by the vendor, which is a different thing from the broker's advice call. Keep the two apart. Whether an AI may listen to or summarise the advice conversation is a separate question, covered in the tutorial on letting AI listen to mortgage advice calls.

Four checks before launch. First, the opening line tells callers it is automated and recorded. Where the law requires every party to consent to recording, ask your compliance adviser whether that line is enough or whether the assistant must ask a question and wait for a yes. Second, ask each vendor where recordings and transcripts are stored, how long they are kept, whether you can delete a call at a client's request, and whether call content is used to train models. The pricing pages I read give no retention period apart from Goodcall's call-history tiers, so the answers have to come from the vendor's terms or its sales team.

Third, use the script to keep sensitive data out of the transcript in the first place, as the intake script above does. Fourth, decide who in the firm can read transcripts, and write it down. A transcript of a worried caller describing arrears is exactly what you do not want sitting in a shared inbox that three part-time staff can open.

Once the line is live, the review habit matters more than the vendor. Sample ten transcripts a week for the first month. Count three things: breaches of the never-say table (the target is zero), call-backs later than the promise, and wrong phone numbers. When a month passes with none of the three, drop the sample to five a week, and keep the trap calls on the calendar for after every change to the script.

Questions brokers ask before switching the assistant on

Can the assistant tell callers what the firm charges?

Only with wording your compliance adviser has approved, word for word. Most brokers leave fees to the first appointment, so the safest instruction is: say that fees are explained by the broker before anything is agreed, then offer a call-back. An assistant that improvises 'no fee for the first meeting' or 'we're free' has made a promise the firm may not be able to keep.

Must the assistant say it is not a person?

Rules on disclosing automated callers and on recording differ by place and are still changing, so ask your compliance adviser. The practical habit is to say it in the first sentence: an automated assistant, calls recorded so the team can follow up. It costs nothing, removes a complaint risk, and callers who dislike it ask for a person, which is exactly the handoff you want.

What if the assistant mishears a phone number or name?

Make the script read digits back in groups and ask the caller to confirm, then send a text or email summary where the vendor supports it. In your weekly transcript sample, count wrong numbers as a fault in their own right. A perfect never-say record is worthless if the call-back goes to the wrong number.

What should happen to calls about a live application?

The assistant should take a message, flag the caller as an existing client and route it to the case handler without discussing the file. It cannot verify who is calling, so it must not confirm lender decisions, documents received or progress. Set a same-day call-back promise, and treat time-critical words such as offer expiry or completion date as an immediate transfer.

Further reads

• AI Answering Service for Insurance Agents: Claims Calls and Quote Leads — A sibling sector's rules for claims calls and quote leads
• HubSpot for Mortgage Brokers: Leads, Referrers and Case Stages — Where call details should land once the assistant has them
• Can AI Keep Mortgage Clients Updated During an Application? — What to send clients once a case is live
• AI Answering Service for Title Companies: Cost and Status-Call Rules — Closing-status calls, wire requests and identity checks: what an AI answering service may handle for a title company, and what it costs a month.
• ChatGPT for Mortgage Brokers: Emails and Case Summaries, Not Advice — Ten copy-and-paste prompts for client emails, case notes and partner updates, each with the guardrail line that keeps regulated advice out of the draft.
• Mortgage Broking and AI: Best Interests Duty File Notes Explained — How AI can draft best interests duty file notes without turning them generic, with the cost-comparison detail ASIC's 2026 review flagged.
• Mortgage Broker Social Media With AI: A Month of Compliant Posts — A four-week content calendar for mortgage brokers, with a per-post advertising-rule check, disclosure wording and a review step before anything goes live.
• RESPA Section 8 and AI Marketing: A Checklist for Loan Officers — A loan officer's checklist for AI-made marketing and partner content under RESPA Section 8: referral fees, co-marketing, things of value and review.
• AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.

Sources: Upfirst, Smith.ai (AI and human plans), Goodcall, Dialzara, Rosie and Zapier pricing pages, checked November 2026.