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Lender service levels

Journalist: Anna Sagar, Mortgage Solutions / Specialist Lending Solutions

ended 17. February 2023

Interested in speaking to brokers about their experiences with lender service levels. 

  • How have you found lender service levels since the start of the year? Have they improved, stayed the same or worsened?
  • Are there any lenders that offer particularly good service and ones that could improve?
  • What do you want to see from lenders regarding service levels? (Technology, recruitment, more hours etc)

5 responses from the Newspage community

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Aaron Strutt
Product and Communications Director at Trinity Financial
Some lenders are issuing mortgage offers really quickly at the moment. One of our brokers submitted a case to Halifax and the offer was generated in one day. This included the valuer visiting the property. Other leaders are taking a couple of days to produce offers mainly because there is less activity in the market than normal and the lenders are not particularly busy.
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Scott Taylor-Barr
Principal Adviser at Barnsdale Financial Management
I was just thinking the other day about how much better the service appears to be with lenders on the new applications I have submitted so far this year. Night and day in terms of the difference compared to just a few months ago. There are still a few lenders that appear to be struggling, but nowhere near the levels of delay we saw last year. Overall, it's great news for everyone involved in the mortgage process.
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Gary Bush
Financial Adviser at MortgageShop.com
Lender service levels in the main are still awful, from lack of attention to increased use of overseas support teams from some of the BIG names.
Accord, an adviser-only lending division of the Yorkshire Building Society, are providing amazing service levels and proactive working practices. Barclay's use of overseas processing makes for very poor results sadly - a lender often avoided by broker firms.
In the main, most lenders have reasonable technology systems and live chat which saves a LOT of time when querying lending scenarios. All lenders could do with operating greater hours, either 8am starts or later in the evening - some days it's impossible to process all active cases during usual working hours.
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Michael Webb
Managing Director at Mortgage Republic
Service levels have become rapid. Some lenders getting offers out within 48 hours with automated valuations, and even when a physical valuation is required we are seeing a dramatic reduction in our application to offer times compared with Q4 2022. I would suggest this is due to a reduction in volume being received at the lenders.
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Austyn Johnson
Founder at Mortgages For Actors
Every year at Xmas and NY, I get frustrated with service levels, but this year, due to all the last quarter changes, it was abysmal! They are pretty much back to normal now with some lenders getting back to you on the same day. When you have a complex case, you cant really afford to wait a month for a yes or no, you need to know asap so you can find a plan b. Hopefully, good service levels will continue for the next few months. Recruitment over the next 6 months will be a good thing to see as there are so many redundances for employed brokers etc, they would be perfectly placed to understand what is being asked of them.