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Bendigo Bank has been ranked number one for home loan customers with a satisfaction score of 87.7 per cent.
The data from Roy Morgan revealed a 0.7 per cent increase between December 2023 and December 2024, pushing Bendigo from second to first place.
Following was ING at 83.3 per cent, Macquarie at 82.9 per cent, and Suncorp at 79 per cent.
A fall from grace for December 2023’s number one rated bank was Bankwest. The lender scored an impressive 89.4 per cent in 2023, but as of December 2024, dropped to 72.2 per cent.
According to Roy Morgan, scores are based upon parameters such as customer service, wait times, fees, rates and systems.
Customer service is what pushed Bendigo into the top spot, while ING and Macquarie achieved through competitive rates and low fees.
Suncorp saw the biggest yearly growth, growing 5 per cent from 74 per cent to 79 per cent for customer satisfaction. This was reportedly due to customer service and well-trained staff.
Roy Morgan’s general manager of financial services, Suela Qemal, said that despite strong scores, overall satisfaction between December 2023 and December 2024 was down from 74.3 per cent to 73.7 per cent.
“While home loan customer satisfaction across the top banks peaked in the six months to February 2021 at 80.2 per cent coinciding with ‘mortgage holidays’, it soon began to drift downwards as mortgage repayments resumed for hundreds of thousands of borrowers. Since early 2022, there has been the additional impost of rising interest rates,” she said.
“This combination of factors caused a sustained decline in home loan customer satisfaction from its peak in early 2021 until it bottomed out in August 2024 at 70.9 per cent, the lowest recorded since this measure was first tracked in 2011. Since August 2024, the levels of satisfaction have slightly improved, coinciding with improving consumer sentiment and expectations that interest rates will decline in 2025.”
This latest win for Bendigo comes after the bank announced strong growth, with total lending growing by 3.4 per cent during the second half of 2024 and residential lending increasing by 5.3 per cent.
With interest rates seeing a long sought-after cut in February and economists predicting further cuts in 2025, home loan activity is likely to increase throughout the year.
Related: Bendigo and Adelaide Bank reports strong growth
