Rocket Mortgage topped the field in JD Power’s latest U.S. Mortgage Servicer Satisfaction Study, earning the highest marks in customer satisfaction according to the consumer intelligence company’s yearlong study.
The Detroit-based home lending firm received a score of 713, derived from a survey, fielded from May 2023 to May 2024, of 15,020 customers who have been with their current loan servicer for at least a year. The scores evaluate companies on six factors: level of trust, ease of transacting business; information and education; people; resolving problems or questions; and digital channels.
Rocket Mortgage was the only company to score over 700, marking the 10th year Rocket has topped JD Power’s servicer satisfaction ranking. Regions Mortgage (with a score of 678) edged out Chase (676) for second. Guild Mortgage (673) and Huntington National Bank (651) rounded out the top five. The study average score was 606.
One of the key findings of the study was the importance of digital platforms and services for customer satisfaction during a time when many borrowers are perceiving their overall financial health on the wane. Just 41% of borrowers in JD Power’s survey are classified as financial healthy, down from 46% in 2023 and 52% in 2022. The share of at-risk borrowers, on the other hand, is on the uptick, from 17% last year to 19% in 2024.
Satisfying financially unhealthy borrowers is just an important, if not more so, than fulfilling those on better footing: satisfaction scores among financially unhealthy borrowers are, on average, 117 points lower than those among financially healthy ones.
“On the surface, mortgage servicers’ efforts to elevate their digital tools and customer service are offsetting challenging market conditions,” said Bruce Gehrke, senior director of lending intelligence at J.D. Power. “But digging a little deeper, the data shows early signs of potentially serious challenges for servicers in the future. A proverbial ‘canary in the coal mine’ is the financial health of borrowers, which has materially declined in the past few years.
“At the same time, most borrowers are facing rising escrow costs that result in their total monthly mortgage payment increasing. This means the industry has a growing number of at-risk customers facing higher costs, a group that tends to be a lot more expensive to service.”
Fifty-six percent of borrowers saw an increase in escrow costs this year. Overall satisfaction among such borrowers was 62 points lower on average than those who saw no change in their escrow costs. Unsurprisingly, among borrowers whose escrow costs went up, overall satisfaction was higher if they had access to tools and information about escrow from their mortgage servicer.
