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Simon Smith, an IFA for Essex-based Independent Retirement Strategies, said he previously used Mortgage Express on a frequent basis but poor service levels led him to seek alternative lenders.

Mr Smith said: "I first used the equity release mortgage offered by Mortgage Express in late 2003. At that time their online system was, to me, state of the art.

"I am not saying it was perfect but it was light years ahead of any other offering. The product was good, competitive and had a fixed early redemption penalty that was both understandable and reasonable.

"Unfortunately in the early days the online case tracking system was awful, which meant long hours trying to contact an overstretched help desk. Even this would have been acceptable if you could have dealt with one individual instead of the pot luck of whoever you eventually got on the telephone. It was very frustrating.

"Things have improved a lot but so has the market with existing and newer providers offering really good levels of service. At one time I was placing two to three cases a week with Mortgage Express and when I stopped, no one contacted me to find out why.

"I understand maybe my business is not that important but I get outstanding personal attention from many of their competitors and they get the lions share of my cases these days."

Lender say...

Gus Park, director of intermediary sales for Mortgage Express, said: "Advisers do generally find our online system very easy to use. It is true the case tracking functionality did not initially match up to the quality of the rest of our online offering but we have made considerable improvements to case tracking and intermediaries are now able to track progress in a far more detailed and useful way.

"This in turn has reduced the need to call our intermediary contact centre for basic updates, enabling the contact centre to provide a quicker, more value-added service.

"I am a bit concerned this adviser was not contacted by Mortgage Express after they stopped using us. I will make sure he receives a visit from the local business development manager as soon as possible. It is also always possible for any intermediary to identify their local BDM on our website and request a visit.

"We are totally committed to providing outstanding service to intermediaries. One of the few advantages of the current lending environment is it gives us a chance to step back and invest further in our service offering.

"We are in the process of making further improvements to our online system, which we will bring to the market in the next year."

Fact:

Mortgage Express is the specialist intermediary mortgage brand of Bradford & Bingley.

Retirement Plus

Debbie Allen, specialist equity release adviser at Braemar Equity Release, said the support she had received from Retirement Plus had been superb.

Ms Allen said: "Our cases are always dealt with very promptly and we are always kept well informed via email of their progress. Valuations are always instructed immediately and the online system is easy to use.

"Our business development manager ran through the system with us once and now we can just log into their secure system to produce new key facts illustrations and look at the progress of our existing cases.

"One of my cases on a leasehold property is about to complete after only two months down the line, which is excellent for both us and the client. Retirement Plus offers a unique plan that sits well between a lifetime mortgage and conventional home reversion plan.

"Their team are all very friendly, knowledgeable and a pleasure to do business with. We find their email newsletters informative and we are kept up to date with regular visits from them.

"I feel the way forward is to educate solicitors to understand their product so they can feel confident when dealing with clients."

Lender says...

Duncan Young, chief executive of Retirement Plus, said: "It may sound trite, but we set out to build an operations team of friendly, knowledgeable people who would genuinely help the advisers who call in with their questions.

"We also invested heavily in robust online systems that enable the speedy movement and tracking of any case placed with us.

"Lastly, we have trained our relationship managers to liaise, educate where necessary and generally assist wherever they can.

"I am very pleased our advisers are finding we are helpful and we deliver efficiently and rapidly – but I am also aware we can always improve - and we welcome any feedback on where we should concentrate our efforts."

Fact:

Retirement Plus is a Milton Homes company that specialises in providing equity release products.