Peter Rogerson, Virgin Money’s commercial director for mortgages, said the lender’s “strong relationships” with intermediaries were a key component of its mortgage proposition and confirmed it had stuck to all four of its “partnership commitments” to support brokers since the start of the year.
He said: “We’re delighted to say that we have stuck by all of our intermediary partnership commitments and exceeded in a number of areas.
“Combined with a number of other improvements we have made this year, such as our policy app and improved online affordability calculator, sticking to these commitments has been an important factor in delivering the strong mortgage lending growth we have seen so far in 2015.
“I would like to thank all of our intermediary partners for their support during 2015. We plan to deliver further improvements in 2016 to continue growing and developing our mortgage proposition and supporting our intermediary partners.”
Sandra Bailey, an adviser at Mortgage Store in Ampthill, Bedfordshire, said: “With Virgin Money, it is refreshing to deal with a lender who answers the phone within a reasonable time frame, has very helpful staff and a website that’s user friendly.”
Michelle Gilbert from John Charcol added: “We submitted an application at about 4.30pm and it offered less than 24 hours later. My mind is blown – I’ve never seen an application dealt with so quickly and I’ve been at this game for quite a few years now.”
Virgin Money’s commitments are:
Commitment 1: Provide dedicated service teams to support intermediary partners and listen to feedback. Virgin Money has one of the largest teams of dedicated BDMs nationally, available to intermediaries face-to-face or over the phone. The team has held more than 76,000 partnership meetings so far this year to provide guidance, knowledge and support.
Commitment 2: Provide mortgage offers within 10 working days of receiving a fully-packaged application, or give the customer £100. By processing applications as soon as they are received and instructing the valuation on day one, 95% of fully-packaged mortgage applications that went to offer did so inside Virgin Money’s 10 day SLA. On the small number of occasions where it has taken longer, in line with Virgin Money’s commitment the customer has received £100.
Commitment 3: Provide intermediary partners with access to Virgin Money’s full mortgage range, and not keep the best deals for direct customers. Intermediary partners have had access to Virgin Money’s full mortgage range throughout 2015. In addition, intermediaries have also had access to 25 exclusive products so far this year.
Commitment 4: Provide at least 24 hours’ notice before increasing mortgage rates. At least 24 hours’ notice has been provided on all rate increases, and the average notice period has actually been higher than that at 29 hours.
