Mutual Lenders Offer Best Service Level On Loans
A recent survey has found that mutual lenders, such as the smaller building societies, offer the best levels of customer service, when it comes to managing their home owner loan or mortgage.
The results of the survey have been published by the Building Societies Association (BSA), based on independent research conducted by GfK NOP.
The survey found that around 70 per cent of customers whose loan was with a mutual lender were extremely happy with the service they received from their provider, compared with 63 per cent of customers whose loans were elsewhere.
In fact, mutual lenders outperformed the main high street banks in every area of the survey, which backs up the argument that banks are often more interested in looking after the shareholders than they are their loan customers.
More than 5000 individuals with home owner loans were interviewed for the survey, on 11 different areas of customer service and mutual lenders did better than banks in all of these, in some cases by a long way.
40 per cent of people with their loan through a bank, thought that they had not received value for money, compared with just 14 per cent of mutual customers. Similarly, less that half of bank customers felt that they had been treat fairly, compared with 63 per cent of mutual borrowers.
Adrian Coles of the BSA said “The last few years have been some of the most turbulent for financial firms, so it is great to see mutual organisations flying the customer service flag with such consistency.”
“Providing a high level of customer service is inherent to the mutual model, the institution’s core purpose is to serve its owners, who are its customers. This contrasts with institutions that are owned by external shareholders.”
