Lend of the line... home loan firms hard to contact
MORE than half of mortgage customers have struggled to get through to their lender during Covid- 19, consumer campaigners have found.
Some 56 per cent of borrowers who contacted or tried to reach firms faced issues including long phone queues and lenders failing to reply to phone or email messages.
A Which? survey of more than 3,600 mortgage holders found more than a fifth had contacted or attempted to contact their lender since the start of the pandemic. Of those, six in 10 asked for a payment holiday.
Meanwhile Which? awarded some mortgage lenders “recommended provider” status because they scored highly in both customer satisfaction research and its analysis of the top mortgage deals.
First Direct, Nationwide and Coventry Building Society were named as the UK’s best mortgage lenders.
First Direct had excellent customer scores and was also rated highly for both the transparency of its charges and keeping its customers informed. The Nationwide and Coventry Building Society also scored highly in the customer survey and analysis of the lenders offering the cheapest deals.
Chelsea Building Society however, came bottom of this year’s Which? table, below specialist lender Kensington.
Which? Money editor Jenny Ross said: “Choosing a mortgage is one of the biggest financial decisions people will ever make.
“Good customer service and communication have proven particularly vital since the start of the pandemic so prospective buyers and remortgagers should factor them in as two of the most important aspects of choosing a mortgage, along with getting a good deal.”