Top Mortgage Lenders in Customer Satisfaction

Published by nora | Filed under Buyer / Seller Tips, Market Trends, Mortgage / Finance, Real Estate

If you’re planning to get a loan to buy a home, consider choosing from the mortgage lenders and servicers chosen by 4,516 homeowners interviewed by J.D. Power in its primary mortgage service satisfaction study conducted in May and June this year. These homeowners rated lenders according to how the lenders communicated and handled five items: loan origination fees, billing and payment process, escrow account, website and phone contact. The sixth factor considered was overall satisfaction.

The lender that got the highest rating was Branch Banking & Trust (BB&T), the tenth largest financial-holding company in the country with more than 1,800 branches in 12 states and in Washington, D.C. It got a rating of 795 points in a 1,000-point scale. According to the homeowners surveyed, BB&T was transparent about the fees it charged. The bank also used their preferred method of billing and payment and currently provides an easy way for homeowners to access their account information.

In another survey conducted by global financial services research firm Greenwich Associates in 2009, BB&T also won all the middle market and small business banking award categories. The second best mortgage lender and servicer in the J.D. Power survey was SunTrust Mortgage, among the country’s largest banks with 1,675 branches. It got a rating of 767 points. Third in the survey was U.S. Bank with a rating of 755 points. This bank is the nation’s fifth largest commercial bank with 3,002 branches in 24 states.

Among the four largest banks in the country, namely Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup, it was Wells Fargo which got the highest rating of 744 points. It was fourth in ranking in the survey. CitiMortgage was ninth with 730 points, Chase was 13th with 721 points and Bank of America was 16th with 705 points.

To summarize, these are the top 15 mortgage lenders in customer satisfaction, according to the 4,516 homeowners surveyed in May and June this year:

1.     BB&T
2.     SunTrust Mortgage
3.     U.S. Bank
4.     Wells Fargo
5.     Fifth Third Mortgage
6.     Regions Mortgage
7.     PHH Mortgage
8.     MetLife Home Loans
9.     CitiMortgage
10.     Flagstar Bank
11.     GMAC
12.     HSBC Mortgage
13.     Chase (JPMorgan)
14.     PNC/National City Mortgage
15.     Bank of America

According to J.D. Power analysts, mortgage lenders deliver on best practices during the loan origination process, but fail during the loan modification process, particularly on the length of time spent to deliver a certain response and on the number and frequency of documents and information needed for processing.

In the most recent report released by the U.S. Treasury, the top banks in number of loan modification under the Home Affordable Modification Program and the bank’s proprietary programs through July were expectedly Bank of America, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and CitiMortgage as these banks control more than half of all home loans originated nationwide.