Britain's best and worst mortgage lenders, according to their customers

Britain's best and worst mortgage lenders, according to their customers
Britain's best and worst mortgage lenders, according to their customers

The best and worst mortgage lenders in Britain have been revealed in a poll voted on by their customers.

Consumer website Which? has published the results of its annual lender survey, where it asks mortgage holders to rate them on their customer service and value for money.

It also takes into account which providers offer the cheapest deals.

Britain's biggest mortgage lenders have been ranked best to worst in a new report by Which?

Britain's biggest mortgage lenders have been ranked best to worst in a new report by Which?

First Direct took the top spot this year, receiving a score of 81 per cent.

Which? said its customers awarded it five stars across all the scoring categories, and that it 'consistently offered some of the cheapest deals on the market'.

Nationwide Building Society came in second place with an overall customer score of 77 per cent, achieving five-star ratings for value for money and for the clarity of its mortgage statements.

Both were named 'Which? Recommended Providers' – the only two lenders to achieve this – with Nationwide getting the stamp of approval for the eighth year in a row.

Coventry Building Society's customers gave it a top approval rating of 81 per cent, jointly with First Direct – but it lost its Which? recommendation crown, which it was given in 2020, because it did not offer enough market-leading mortgage deals. 

Skipton Building Society also received a high rating of 79 per cent, but as a smaller lender this was based on only 41 customers.

Nationwide was the second highest-ranked lender in the Which? mortgage survey, and one of only two to receive 'recommended' status from the consumer website

Nationwide was the second highest-ranked lender in the Which? mortgage survey, and one of only two to receive 'recommended' status from the consumer website 

Royal Bank of Scotland received the lowest score in this year's survey, with an overall customer score of 64 per cent.

RBS, which is part of the NatWest group, received three stars for its general customer service, flexibility of payments and online access, among other criteria. 

Asked for its response to the news, an RBS spokesperson told This is Money: 'We can do more to improve the experience for customers in certain aspects of our service.

'We’re investing in dedicated teams focussed on making targeted improvements for customers in order to address the areas where our service falls short of expectations.'

BRITAIN'S BEST AND WORST MORTGAGE LENDERS: RANKED Lender name  Customer satisfaction rating  (%) Stars out of 5 for customer service  Coventry BS 81 5  First Direct   81  5  Skipton BS  79  (not enough data)  Nationwide  77  4  NatWest  73  4  Leeds BS  73  4  Barclays  72  4  HSBC  71  4  Lloyds  71  4  Santander  71  4  TSB  71  3  Co-operative  71  4  Halifax  70  4  Virgin Money  70  3  Accord  66  3  Royal Bank of Scotland  64  3  Source: Which?
Names in bold are 'recommended' providers   

Halifax was also among the poorer performers, with a score of 70 per cent making it the fourth worst-rated.

The bottom three was completed by Virgin Money and Accord Mortgages, which is part of Yorkshire Building Society.

Making up the middle of the table were NatWest and Leeds BS, which received the overall average rating of all lenders at 73 per cent.

Barclays came next with 72 per cent, followed by HSBC, Lloyds, Santander, TSB and the Co-operative which all scored 71 per cent.

Some lenders

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