Lender service levels worst seen in 'really long time', say brokers

Banks such as Nationwide and NatWest cite “high volumes of calls” on their intermediary websites, while Virgin Money currently takes up to 16 working days to process documents and over an hour to connect with brokers over the phone.

In some instances, brokers have had to ask to be transferred back to a UK contact after being passed to intermediary support abroad.

Some advisers are unconvinced by lenders’ claims that their longer-than-normal hold and processing times are down to “high demand” in the market.

Phone wait times can be anything up to an hour and a half.Danielle Panteli, Timothy, James & Partners

They have argued a lack of stock and no impetus to buy means it should not be as busy as lenders are claiming, making these wait times unacceptable.

In addition, others have argued lenders are causing the long wait times themselves because of how regularly they are cutting rates with just hours of notice for brokers.

“We are spending more and more of our valuable time on hold over the phone,” said Lincolnshire-based broker Bob Riach.

“I could understand this during lockdown when it was 10 working days and you had stamp duty which put a rush on things, but things started to improve. But there’s nothing major now to push the market. There’s a lack of stock in our area.

“Earlier this month, I was on hold to Clydesdale Bank [part of Virgin Money] for an hour and a half before giving up.”

UK property transactions fell by 10.5 per cent in April, according to HM Revenue and Customs data.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics have also shown house growth already starting to revert back to single digits, prompting some in the industry to foresee a lack of new home buyers and a “sharp knockout blow” to property transactions in the coming months.

Timothy, James & Partners residential finance head, Danielle Panteli, said since lenders switched support teams to work from home models, service levels have gone down.

Lenders are almost doing it to themselves.Danielle Panteli, Timothy, James & Partners

“Phone wait times can be anything up to an hour and a half, and they’re often recommending email over phone calls,” she explained.

“It’s the worst I’ve known it in a really long time. Turnaround times can be 15 working days to look at a piece of paper.”

Panteli said the influx of business is being caused by rapid rate rises, referencing Virgin Money’s “significant” 0.4 per cent fixed-rate hike last week. 

“Lenders are almost doing it to themselves. Unless they cool down on rates, more business will come in with people trying to lock in old rates and put a strain on service levels. Lenders need to learn when to turn the cap off.”

‘Smaller lenders easier to get hold of’

Lenders all promise various levels of service, which can change daily. Currently in the UK, a mortgage application can take as little as two days or as many as 16 working days to be processed.

Lincolnshire-based broker Riach argued such service levels can easily double if documents need to be re-sent.

“If a client has had bonuses then you need to resend payslips which doubles the time, meaning it can take nearly a month to process an application,” Riach explained.

Many lenders did better in lockdown than they do now.Aaron Strutt, Trinity Financial

Asked why it is taking longer to respond to brokers, Nationwide told FTAdviser its current average timescales are “what we’d expect given the high demand we’re seeing in the market”.

The bank added: “We update timescales on our website on a daily basis so everyone has an up-to-date overview of how long their application might take.”

As of today (June 29), Nationwide takes 11 working days to process a mortgage application, and 22 days to turn the application into an offer.

Trinity Financial director Aaron Strutt said “many lenders” tell him and his team they cannot answer the phone because they are “too busy”.

“Why is it now? Rather than when we were in the pandemic? Many lenders did better in lockdown than they do now,” said Strutt.

“Barclays doesn't communicate very well. Our brokers often ask to be transferred back to the UK to get a better answer. Whereas HSBC often answers the phone more quickly.

“Smaller lenders are a lot easier to get hold of when it comes to day-to-day application queries versus correspondence with assigned business managers.”

Kensington Mortgages promises to take less than a day to review applications and to process uploaded documents, and to turn an application into an offer within 16 working days.

Riach also said one of his brokers managed to get an offer issued two days after a valuation review with Pepper Money last week.

June has been a particularly busy period, in which we’ve seen call volumes increase over 50% compared to May.Santander spokesperson

In May, founder of Highclere Financial Alan Lakey criticised Barclays after it took him five weeks to secure a mortgage loan increase on behalf of his clients, calling the bank’s communication throughout the process “contemptible”.

The bank outsources part of its underwriting and pre-mortgage administration, meaning a mortgage application is not wholly handled by one UK-based case manager, but rather by a variety of administrators both at home and abroad.

Tracking time on hold

FTAdviser asked three brokers to track how long they spent on hold to lenders over the course of one week, from June 20 to June 24.

All three tracked their time in different ways. Managing director of IntraPrivate Finance, Bulent Kandemir, tracked averages across two of his brokers.

One, Cigdem Aslan, averaged four calls to lenders each day over the week taking an average time of 15 minutes each to get through to someone. 

The second, Ravi Joshi, averaged a lesser three calls a day to lenders each day, but they took a longer average time of 20 minutes each.

Riach tracked specific calls made by himself and two of his brokers last week. He said he hung up on Santander after 26 minutes, having been told the hold time was 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, one of his brokers spent one hour on hold with Virgin Money, and a further 40 minutes waiting on the lender’s live chat.

Another said they spent no time on hold to specialist lender Pepper Money, but did spend 30 minutes on hold to Nationwide before having to end the call.

Trinity Financial director Strutt asked one of his brokers to record all their calls over the week-long period.

Santander told FTAdviser that June has been “a particularly busy period”, in which it has seen call volumes increase “over 50 per cent” compared to May, 

A spokesperson added: “This has contributed to the longer call wait times our brokers have experienced. 

If not all of the documentation that is required is not submitted with the application then it inevitably means the process will be longer.Virgin Money spokesperson

“We are exploring how we can expand our telephony service and examining our processes to seek improvements so we can deliver the service our broker partners would expect.

The lender said brokers can alternatively contact the bank through its live chat option to speak to one of its relationship managers.

Meanwhile, Virgin Money said the mortgage market “is extremely busy” as people look to secure rates.

A spokesperson added: “Virgin Money is no different as we look to offer rates which support all segments of the mortgage market.

“When we receive a fully packaged mortgage application from a broker it is taking eight days to process and underwrite the application.

“However, if not all of the documentation that is required is not submitted with the application then it inevitably means the process will be longer. The mortgage rate is secured on submission of the application.”

FTAdviser approached Barclays for comment.

ruby.hinchliffe@ft.com