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Live chats with mortgage lenders

Journalist: Anna Sagar, Mortgage Solutions / Specialist Lending Solutions

ended 09. March 2023

Interested in speaking to mortgage brokers about mortgage lender live chats. 

  • How often do you use live chat? What is it the best/worst for? 
  • Which lenders have the best/worst live chat? 
  • In an ideal world, what would you like to see from lenders' live chat?

9 responses from the Newspage community

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Riz Malik
Independent Financial Adviser at R3 Wealth
Live chat can be a fantastic tool for quick and convenient interaction, but the usefulness of those chats might drastically differ depending on the lender in question (not mentioning any names but most brokers will know who I mean). Some lenders don't seem to have seen the memo on basic chat etiquette and instead of offering real help, they just blindly copy and paste their lender requirements. On the other hand, some lenders go too far in the opposite direction and use Johnny Number 5 to pose as a real person. There is a lot of variation across the lenders.
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Emma Jones
Managing Director at Whenthebanksaysno.co.uk
Robots!! For lenders that use robots, there's nothing more frustrating as a broker a few minutes in, realising you're speaking to a robot! Lenders, you know who you are!
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Katy Eatenton
Mortgage & Protection Specialist at Eatenton Finance
I'm not a fan of live chat, especially when you have to wait on hold for ages! In this time, you've started something else, miss your place in the queue and then have to start the process again. I would much rather have a call on hold in the background and then speak to a person rather than a robot!
More lenders are moving to live chat, but are yet to deliver a good service which is frustrating
Barclays have to be one of the worst- especially when the person you are talking to doesn't have a clue what they are talking about!! (which happens often)
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Scott Taylor-Barr
Principal Adviser at Barnsdale Financial Management
The switch to "live" interactions, but phone or online chats can be frustrating and time-consuming; I'd much rather send an email and then get on with my day, rather than wait on hold on a live chat. Unfortunately, more and more lenders (and insurers for that matter) seem to be closing email and personal contact channels down, moving users into call centres and live chat centres, whether that's what we as their customers want it or not.
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Matthew Jackson
Director at Mint FS
In general terms, i am not a fan of "Live Chat" Systems - I think they were invented by lenders to solve a problem which they created. Not enough staff to man the phones and constantly looking to reduce face to face support from Business Development Managers - even though every broker i speak to prefer face to face support.

The queues are still long to access "Live Chat" and when you can get connected nine times out of ten the person dealing with the query does not have the knowledge or capability to help - pretty pointless really !
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Graham Cox
Director at Bridging Hub
I find live chat particularly useful when I need to quickly check lender criteria or the client has unusual circumstances. The quality of lender responses varies, depending on how well staff are trained. Some of them rely on copy and paste answers. But others are excellent, Coventry Building Society spring to mind.

What improvements would I like to see? Perhaps more examples and fuller explanations in lenders' criteria to save on wasted time clarifying on live chat. It's not always clear if they'll use a self-employed applicant's latest year's figures or an average of the last two for example. And better response times. There's nothing worse than being sat in a queue of 100 other brokers. Especially as some of them cut you off if you don't respond within 2 or 3 minutes.

Maybe AI could help to answer questions too.
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Rhys Schofield
Brand Director at Peak Mortgages and Protection
Live chat is great if you're actually speaking to someone who knows what they're doing on the other end. When it's a bit pointless is if you just have someone regurgitating published lending policy that we can all read anyway. Even then some lenders fail to get that right.
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Joe Stallard
Director and Advisor at House and Holiday Home Mortgages
Live chat's great for a quick conversation about straightforward criteria clarification. When there's multiple layers of complications on a case, I'll always try to speak to a BDM to get their support on a case.

You can put the same question to multiple lenders at once and not have to listen to whatever terrible hold music they've shelled out for that particular week!
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Gary Boakes
Director at Verve Financial
Live chats are ok if you need to know basic lender criteria, however, for anything complex that maybe be slightly out of criteria then the recommendation would still be to contact your BDM.
The queues for the live chats are also very frustrating, in some cases it would be easier if the lenders laid out their criteria on the website easier and maybe started giving scenarios that people could relate to when looking for an answer.
The worst- im sorry to say Barclays win this hands down.