Finder Personal Loans Customer Satisfaction Awards 2021
See which lenders were the most popular according to their customers.
Welcome to the Finder Customer Satisfaction Awards 2021
The best way to determine the value of a product is by speaking to the people who actually use it: the customers. For our 2021 Customer Satisfaction Awards, we asked customers of the UK’s leading personal loan providers what they thought of their lender to see which came out on top.
The winners
Our winners are based on their overall satisfaction score (star rating) and recommendation score (how likely customers would be to recommend the lender to a friend). You can read more on our methodology below.
Here are the winners for 2021.
Personal Loan Customer Satisfaction Winner:
HSBC
A first-time winner, HSBC takes out the award in 2021 thanks to a strong 4.5-star rating and impressive recommendation score. 88% of HSBC personal loan customers would recommend the lender to their friend, edging out the rest of the competition.
One of the UK’s “Big Four” banks, HSBC was founded in 1836 and now has more than 50 million customers worldwide.
Read our full review of HSBC personal loans
Personal Loan Customer Satisfaction Highly Commended:
Santander
Finishing a close second behind HSBC, Santander is this year’s highly commended personal lender, with a 4.5-star rating and solid recommendation score. According to surveyed Santander customers, 86% would recommend the lender to a friend.
Founded in 1857, Santander is a Spanish multinational financial services company and one of the largest banks in Europe. It offers personal loans, credit cards, personal banking and mortgages and has over 100 million customers worldwide.
Read our full review of Santander personal loans
Our customer satisfaction league table
Table ordered by percentage of customers who said they’d recommend the brand to a friend (recommendation score)
| Overall satisfaction | Customers who’d recommend | Lender | Review | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
★★★★★ | 88% |  | HSBC | Founded in Hong Kong in 1865, and now one of the UK’s “Big Four” banks, HSBC provides personal loans for new and existing customers for up to 8 years. You can apply for a loan online or in person at an HSBC branch. | Read our review |
★★★★★ | 86% |  | The Spanish banking giant has long been a fixture of the UK’s high street banking industry and offers personal loans for those who are at least 21 years old. | Read our review | |
★★★★★ | 81% |  | Barclays | Barclays is another of the “Big Four” UK banks and has been in operation for over 300 years. It offers personal loans up to £50,000, with discounted rates available to Barclays current and premium account holders. | Read our review |
★★★★★ | 81% |  | NatWest | NatWest offers personal loans for existing customers only, meaning you’ll need to have had another NatWest product for at least 3 to 6 months. | Read our review |
★★★★★ | 78% |  | Tesco | Our 2020 Customer Satisfaction Award winner, Tesco has been offering personal loans for over 20 years. You can borrow up to £35,000 and can get an instant decision on your application. If you’re a Tesco Clubcard member, you may even be eligible for a discounted rate. | Read our review |
★★★★★ | 74% |  | Zopa | The other runner-up to Tesco, Zopa is a peer-to-peer lending platform that provides personal loan rates that are often lower than the high street lenders. | |
★★★★★ | 77% |  | Halifax | One of this year’s highly commended, Halifax offers personal loans for new and existing customers. Those who have a Halifax current account can even borrow up to £50,000. | Read our review |
★★★★★ | 71% |  | Sainsbury’s | Sainbury’s Bank provides competitive personal loans up to £40,000 for customers in the UK. Like rival supermarket brands, Sainsbury’s also offers discounted personal loan rates to its Nectar cardholders. | Read our review |
★★★★★ | 73% |  | M&S Bank | Another retailer that’s entered the financial services industry, Marks & Spencer was founded in 1884 and now offers personal loans up to £25,000. | Read our review |
★★★★★ | 61% |  | Pepper Money | A specialist lender offering second-charge mortgages, Pepper Money (formerly Optimum Credit) has financed over £400 million in secured loans for UK customers. | Read our review |
★★★★★ | 53% | | Post Office | A government-owned retail post office company, the Post Office also provides financial products through its Post Office Money brand. It offers personal loans with competitive rates and flexible repayment terms. |
Customer satisfaction ratings methodology
In December 2020, we ran an independent customer satisfaction survey on personal loan providers. We received answers from 751 personal loan customers, who gave us their opinion on their current lender.
We asked respondents how satisfied they are with their personal loan provider (giving a rating from one to five) and whether they would recommend the lender to a friend. We converted the results into star ratings and created a shortlist of the best-performing brands for our awards. When there was a draw, we used the recommendation score (the percentage of customers who said they would recommend the lender to a friend) as a tie-breaker.
Full details of our star ratings for this sector are on the personal loans rating methodology page.
Personal loan ratings
★★★★★ — Excellent
★★★★★ — Good
★★★★★ — Average
★★★★★ — Subpar
★★★★★ — Poor
The customer satisfaction score (“You say”) is based on a survey of 751 customers carried out in December 2020.
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