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86% of mortgage borrowers dissatisfied with their lender

paulajohn
Written By:
paulajohn
Posted:
Updated:
05/06/2014

Just 14% of UK mortgage borrowers described themselves as ‘satisfied’ with their mortgage lender, according to a YouGov survey.

The report, entitled “Mortgages: The Customer Experience”, reveals that mortgage applicants become less and less satisfied the further down the path to arranging a mortgage they go.

Of those surveyed, 34 per cent are satisfied at the application stage, while 66 per cent rate it as poor.

By what YouGov calls the ‘financial stage’, only 18 per cent of applicants describe themselves as satisfied, dropping to 14 per cent of mortgage holders post-application, once their mortgages have been approved.

The report found that the aspects of the application stage rated the highest are filling out the application (45 per cent rate it good/very good) and the time it took to get the final decision (43 per cent).

The areas of the process rated lowest are getting supporting documentation certified (17 per cent rate it good/very good), providing information to the solicitor, and getting help from the provider (both 20 per cent).

At the ‘financial stage’, 59 per cent of applicants describe the experience of setting up the monthly mortgage repayments as the ‘good’ or ‘very good’, while 44 per cent say the ease of transferring funds to the solicitor into their account is ‘good’ or ‘very good’.

The lowest ranking parts of the process are the welcome pack from the provider outlining the new mortgage and the responsiveness of the provider in dealing with any queries.

Once applicants have become mortgage customers, the areas of service with the best ratings are the provider being friendly and their overall treatment as a customer. But only one in seven feels their provider is good/very good at listening to their problems and just one in eight say they are never disappointed by their lender.

Tom Rees, UK research manager at YouGov, said: “The bad news for providers is that most people dislike most parts of getting a mortgage. The good news is that customers are pretty clear about what can be done to make the experience a happier one.

“For example, providers would improve perceptions of the application stage by giving applicants more personal control over the whole mortgage process. At the financial stage speeding up the decision-making process would prove popular. And once people have mortgages, lenders could improve things by increasing the level and quality of contact with their customers.”