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John Stewart, director of Essex-based PMI IFA Ltd, said he was very pleased with the "first class" service he received from Leeds Building Society and would give the lender "nine out of 10" for customer satisfaction.

Mr Stewart said: "We used Leeds on a guarantor mortgage and found it to be first class. I am really quite pleased with them. It dragged on for reasons that had nothing to do with the lender.

"It was actually quite complicated because there was a divorce situation but Leeds was very good at extending the offer a couple of times for us.

"We found that it was more than helpful and very accommodating. I would give them nine out of 10 for customer satisfaction and the client was very happy.

"The experience was nice and positive for a change. Leeds had a good product and even though the process kept dragging on for months and months and months, it kept rolling it over for us.

"Leeds could have said no you have gone past the deadline so that is it but it rolled it on a couple of times for us. They are good guys and we will be giving them more business."

Lender says...

Jeff Kirk, corporate relationship manager for Leeds Building Society, said: "It is pleasing to hear our product and service proposition is appropriate for the intermediary market and our ethos of being rapid and flexible in our approach is successful.

"Advisers are very important to us. We listen to feedback and look to work with them to find a solution, particularly in this difficult market. We constantly review our product range and are always looking for ways to improve our service.

"Circumstances are different and while we cannot always extend an offer after expiry this is another example of our rapid and flexible approach, working together with intermediaries to provide a competitive product backed up by excellent service."

FACT

Leeds Building Society has 70 branches across the UK, with 29 located in Yorkshire and a branch in Gibraltar.

Stroud and Swindon

Rebecca Jones, mortgage consultant for London-based Music Media IFA, said she enjoyed her experience with Stroud & Swindon and it provided the sort of service she expected and hoped to receive from a lender.

Ms Jones said: "It was really good actually, I found the service to be great. It is strange with these small lenders, even though they do not seem to communicate with you very much, they do seem to get everything done on time and correctly.

"On top of this, it did not seem to get massive back logs even though the rates are quite good so it is obviously good at handling the business it is receiving.

"I submitted through Trigold, which actually seemed to work quite well. It does not with quite a few other lenders, fairly often it takes them ages to get the forms through, but with Stroud & Swindon it seemed to happen very quickly.

"As an additional point, its website is really good for its criteria as well. It is good. That is my only requirement of a lender and you do not get it that often."

Lender says...

Derek Batterbee, intermediary helpdesk manager of Stroud & Swindon, said: "The intermediary helpdesk is based within the society's main lending centre, working with a team of people who are dedicated to the intermediary business and who are also very knowledgeable.

"Being a small lender the staff are all trained to be able to deal with each others work and short lines of communication helps with the efficiency of the operation.

"Intermediaries calling in will automatically speak to a dedicated person dealing with and understanding the intermediary market, which means the majority of queries are dealt with very quickly.

"We recognise intermediaries are very busy people and our website has been designed with this in mind, providing information in a simple and easily accessible format."

FACT

Stroud and Swindon is now the fifteenth largest building society in the UK with assets in excess of £3.2bn.