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Roshni Shah, compliance director of Harrow-based intermediary Lotus Benefit Consultants Limited, said she had been impressed with the lender's service. With the exception of the new decision in principle application having a few minor teething problems, she had nothing remotely negative to say about the lender.

Ms Shah said: "They are very good. They have just brought out a new online decision in principle system, which is having a few teething problems, but generally their response, even with paper, is very quick.

"The staff at GE Money Home Lending are very helpful and their response and turn around times are impressive as well.

"It has reduced its redemption penalties across the board, across the major products so that is good as well and on top of this their fees are quite reasonable compared with other lenders.

"We package for them and although we have not put much business their way recently, all in all they are actually pretty great."

Lender says...

Gerry Bell, head of mortgage marketing for GE Money Home Lending, said: "Advisers are key partners for our business and we are pleased their experience engaging with the company has been positive.

"The introduction of our instant decision online system is designed to provide product solutions that may be suitable for customers in a matter of minutes.

"Being part of the AAA-rated GE Group allows us to remain in the important specialist lending sector, while others have been forced to reduce their presence in the market."

FACT

GE Money operates in 55 countries around the world.

Cheltenham & Gloucester

Sonny Joannou, mortgage adviser for London-based IFA Anand Associates, said he enjoyed using C&G and had been impressed with the service provided. However he said the lender may have made a few too many changes and believed if something was not broken, why fix it?

Mr Joannou said: "I have used C&G recently and I found it very good. It has very helpful staff. I have got to know a particular BDM, who always keeps me informed and when she is away tells me who to deal with in her absence.

"There is also a good web system called Caseflow, which we have used a couple of times recently and it works very efficiently.

"Overall it is a good lender but it has made too many changes. Sometimes I find when lenders improve systems they get worse. Sometimes things are not broken and they fix them and the result is they are not as good as they were.

"C&G had a good system that was not broken, it fixed it, and it is not as good as it was."

Lender says...

Kevin Purvey, head of intermediary sales at Cheltenham and Gloucester, said: "We are undergoing a process, which began last year, to significantly improve how we work with intermediaries.

"We launched Caseflow, our new online tool for intermediaries, and it is good to hear positive feedback on this service. We also introduced a new central telephone unit to compliment Caseflow and serve intermediaries requiring assistance with applications.

"We reorganised our sales force of more than 70 BDMs to make it more relationship focused and moved our mortgage processing systems out of branches to Gloucester. We have made a substantial investment in these changes and hope intermediaries will see the benefit of phase two towards the end of the year."

FACT

Cheltenham & Gloucester has been part of the Lloyds TSB Group since 1995.