LendingTree owns MSN’s homepage again <msn.com>, locking up the main page sponsorship today (9am Pacific Time) with a refi pitch in the upper-right corner and an ad for home equity loans in the Money area (see inset).

In an approach popularized by car dealers, both ads emphasize monthly payment amount rather than rate. This theme is carried through on the landing page which has no mention of rate. In fact, you could complete the entire loan application without ever seeing the rate.

The only rate link is the relatively faint reverse-type line in the upper-right corner. Clicking on it delivers a small, quarter-page popup with disclosures for all 41 promotional offers currently in use by LendingTree — 6,800-words in all across 24 screens (download lendingtree_disclosures.doc).

Interestingly, both offers lead to the same landing page. While it would probably be more effective to craft different pages for each loan type, LendingTree may prefer a common landing page to more easily compare results from its different promotional ads.