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Ninian Duncan, director of Dunfermline-based IFA Dedicated Mortgage Solutions, said he had absolutely no problems with the service he received from Intelligent Finance and found the lender's online systems especially helpful and user friendly.

Mr Duncan said: "The speed of response is very good. Anything we have done with the lender we have got answers on very quickly. It is easy to get through to our telephone account executive. We can call her or alternatively drop her an email and she gets back in touch with us.

"The system side of things is really good as well. It is easy to use and the flexibility of it is great. With their offset products you can do it so you can either reduce the term or they can reduce their monthly payments. We find that that is quite attractive to a client.

"No major improvement is required right now. At the moment it is probably not as competitive as it could be with regard to rates but that is the same for a number of lenders and hopefully that will change in the coming months."

Lender says...

Peter Curran, head of distribution for Bank of Scotland and Intelligent Finance, said: "I am delighted intermediaries continue to recognise the quality of our people and the excellent customer service they provide.

"As a business we constantly listen to intermediaries to learn what they need and develop our business to ensure we deliver the very best level of service and flexibility for them and their clients. We aim to deliver exactly what our customers want and will continue to look at ways of making it as easy as possible for intermediaries to do business with us."

FACT

Intelligent Finance sponsors the IF.comedy award at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Abbey

Diane Saunders, director of Leeds-based Diane Saunders Financial Advisers, said although Abbey had some great rates she found it very hard to deal with.

Ms Saunders said: "We submitted cases earlier this year and found it very frustrating. Getting in touch for updates took ages, up to an hour of an unanswered telephone and when we got through their staff were untrained and clearly under pressure.

"At times their response to queries was 28 days, which is why we stopped using them. Why bang your head on a brick wall when you can go elsewhere and open a door?

"We got the impression Abbey's priority was general insurance and mortgages were less important. I suppose with those rates many are prepared for the frustration. The overall impression we got was intermediaries were not very important of the business plan."

Lender says...

Ricky Okey, managing director of Abbey for Intermediaries, said: "It is disappointing to hear you had such poor service from us.

"Admittedly, earlier this year we found being one of the few lenders in the market resulted in high, significant demand for our mortgage products meant that our standards slipped slightly.

"However, we continue to listen to advisers and address issues that really matter to them and in the last 12 months we have made great strides in improving the service we offer.

"We are always looking for new ways to improve our service and continue to offer competitive rates that are exclusive to the intermediary channel. At a time when many lenders have been shy about their presence in the intermediary space we have held our position very well and the historic problems to which you refer are now behind us."

FACT

The Abbey National Building Society demutualised in 1989.