Last week MI – News scored a moral victory for brokers as Chelsea Building Society revealed it had put in a request to change to a local call number and give the money made off its 0870 number to charity, adding it had not realised brokers were concerned about these numbers until MI had flagged the problem up.
MI revealed how some lenders, including Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Chelsea Building Society, had been severely criticised for switching their contact numbers to national rate 0870 numbers.
Brokers had noticed that some of the number changes had occurred after ‘Mortgage Day’ and felt this was simply a ploy by the lenders to save money at the brokers and clients expense.
Broker Bhasmank Mehta contacted Mortgage Introducer and said: “Most telephone network services nowadays offer free or limited services for a small fee such as BT offer free evening calls for a fixed fee. The industry knows this. Why then, I wonder do they insist on keeping 0870 numbers?
“As if the insurance and mortgage companies are not making enough from the brokers and clients, they also need to scrounge a few pence at a time by making us dial these expensive numbers.
“If everyone discontinued to dial these numbers, the businesses will suffer and they soon will come to their senses and change the numbers back to ordinary landline numbers. So, gather the momentum and stop dialing these numbers and also stop issuing these numbers yourself.”
GMAC-RFC confirmed it also has an 0870 number but has no plans to change it. Jeff Knight, head of marketing services at GMAC, said: “The average time brokers spend on the phone when calling us is two minutes.
“We have a good call centre and are actually saving brokers time and money.”
