Co-operative Bank’s intermediary service, Platform, ran into technical issues yesterday which saw its website go down alongside brokers still unable to process payments online.
One broker, owner of Riverside Mortgages Lewis Shaw, said the downtime led him to do an affordability calculation with a different lender, which then saw him secure a decision in principle with that other lender.
“I couldn’t get their website to load,” said Shaw. “Platform's service levels are dire. The lender sits at the top of the rate tables raking in business it can’t cope with. It’s ludicrous.”
The lender currently offers five-year fixed rates from 4.09 per cent for new customers, and earlier this month it cut two-year fixed product switch rates by up to 0.24 percentage points.
Its service levels, according to its website, are two days for an initial assessment.
Yesterday (February 15), the lender said it was experiencing a technical issue.
A spokesperson for the lender told FTAdviser the website was down from 10.30am to 13.00pm yesterday.
Separate to this issue, advisers have been unable to make online card payments for mortgage broker applications.
The lender has been advising those brokers with applications including a homebuyer report or arrangement fee to contact its mortgage desk.
“We have been asking brokers to contact us to give card payment details over the phone as a change to one of our suppliers has meant we’ve needed to upgrade our online payment process and we don’t have the option for online payments while we work through that change,” they explained.
Today (February 15), Platform still had the same notice up on its website.
The spokesperson said the lender will have been busier than normal in the period the website was unavailable, but that phone lines have remained open.
Platform has previously run into issues over its service.
Back in August, it emerged that the lender was ordered by the Financial Ombudsman Service to refund an early repayment charge to a customer after they experienced delays when applying to port their mortgage.
A couple tried to port their mortgage with the lender, but delays led to them cancelling their application and applying to another lender for the new mortgage.
The Fos said while it was the couple’s decision to move to another lender, he believed it was heavily influenced by Platform’s failure to contact them.
ruby.hinchliffe@ft.com
