Welcome to the Finder Customer Satisfaction Awards 2020
No one knows a product better than the people who actually use it, and that’s what these awards are all about. 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.
Without further ado, let’s reveal the winners for 2020.
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Personal Loan Customer Satisfaction Winner:
Tesco Bank
Tesco Bank is our 2020 Customer Satisfaction Award Winner. An overwhelming majority of Tesco customers (87%) said they would recommend the lender to a friend, and it got a healthy 4.5 stars for customer satisfaction.
The UK’s biggest supermarket chain, Tesco originally opened its retail bank arm in 1997 as a joint venture with the Royal Bank of Scotland, but is now wholly owned by Tesco plc. It offers a large range of financial products and services, including credit cards, car insurance, current accounts and, of course, personal loans.
Read our full review of Tesco Bank personal loans
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Personal Loan Customer Satisfaction Highly Commended:
Halifax
Halifax takes joint second place on our 2020 list thanks to an impressive showing with an the overall satisfaction score of 4.5, and 81% of Halifax loan customers in our survey said they’d recommend the brand to a friend.
Founded in West Yorkshire in 1853, Halifax now falls under the Lloyds Banking Group umbrella and offers a large range of financial products and services, including loans, mortgages, credit cards and savings accounts.
Read our full review of Halifax personal loans
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Personal Loan Customer Satisfaction Highly Commended:
Zopa
This year’s other runner-up is peer-to-peer lender Zopa, which finished hot on the heels of Halifax. Like Halifax, Zopa scored an overall star rating of 4.5 (an impressive 41% of customers gave it a 5 out of 5 rating). It also fared well in the recommendation score, with 80% of customers happy to recommend the brand to a friend.
Formed in 2005, Zopa is one of the UK’s original peer-to-peer online lenders and remains one of the most popular 15 years later.
Read our full review of Zopa personal loans
Our customer satisfaction chart
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 | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
★★★★★ | 87% | ![]() | 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 |
★★★★★ | 85% | ![]() | 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 |
★★★★★ | 82% | ![]() | 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% | ![]() | 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 |
★★★★★ | 80% | ![]() | 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. | |
★★★★★ | 76% | ![]() | 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 |
★★★★★ | 75% | ![]() | 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 |
★★★★★ | 74% | ![]() | 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 |
★★★★★ | 71% | ![]() | 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. | |
★★★★★ | 69% | ![]() | 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 |
★★★★★ | 64% | ![]() | Bamboo | Bamboo is a direct lender that offers unsecured personal loans up to £8,000. | Visit Bamboo |
★★★★★ | 47% | ![]() | Amigo | Another direct lender, Amigo offers guarantor loans from £1,000 to £10,000. You’ll need to have a family member or friend co-sign for the loan, but this means you may be able to get a loan even if you have bad credit. | Read our review |
Customer satisfaction ratings methodology
In December 2019, we ran an independent customer satisfaction survey on personal loan providers. We received answers from 750 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 750 customers carried out in December 2019.
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