Birminghammidshires Anmeldelser 

Oeeer, what a very odd bunch of people these are?
I have a number of mortgages with BirMid and so I find it necessary to try to speak with them Frome time to time by telephone. I have found that my eMails are never answered and do not even receive an acknowledgement. ‘Phone calls can take over an hour to be answered and even then you have to be ‘cute’ and pick the wrong connection number of their telephone tree as if you want Customer Services you will never get to speak with anybody. It got so bad that I lodged a formal written complaint and received a gushing reply with all the usual rubbish… short of staff, working from home, sorry, Covid and finally “we will improve”. Well it certainly has not and I spoke with one of their Managers to realise now what their problem really is.
It’s commonly called Abject Ignorance and Bone Idleness.

Dreadful company with amateur underwriters . AVOID

Sadly my experience mirrors that of others here, I want to pay off some of my mortgage but the account details they give online do not match the name given so it's impossible to know if the money will get through.
They do not answer the phone so you cannot make a payment with a debit card. I guess this is why they have to offer competitive mortgages, no one would use them otherwise.

Simply put. Do not use them. Worst mortgage provider.

After the initial 'we are extremely busy and waiting time can be up to 40 minutes' i decided to wait it out, one hour and 15 minutes i gave up, tried again the following day! Still nothing, why not be honest and leave the message 'we are unlikely to answer'

The company has been absolutely awful when we needed assistance and this included losing important documents including a death certificate and a third party authorisation form. As a result it caused huge amounts of issues trying to resolve issues. An extremely poor company which I would not recommend.

Impossible to reach customer service, long waiting time!

They are actually devious in the way they try to prevent you contacting them.

1, When I phone there is a labyrinth of options. Then after about ten minutes of this their automated system will ask you a question to which there is no actual answer. For example the monthly payment or date of payment. I have more than one mortgage on this account so there is no single answer that can be keyed in. Or they will ask for some account details that require me to log into my online banking. Also they have recently changed their account numbering system. The account number on the letter they sent is 14 digits but the ACTUAL account number is 16 digits. The long and short of it is that their automated system actively tries to prevent you from getting through to anyone. It railroads you into options that go nowhere. Phoning them becomes a test of stamina.

2, Several times I have been on hold for over 15 minutes only to be cut off.

3, I was actually given incorrect information on Tuesday. Thank god I did not transfer a large sum of money to the account number they gave me. But I have to keep phoning every step of the way to check there isnt a problem. So far its taken 3 days to try to make this payment. With other companies I can simply call and make a payment, BMS actively seek to prevent this. This is actually unethical as a founding principle of our financial system states "there can be no bar to the equity of redemption".

4, There is no email address to confirm things in writing.

5, The overall effect is a telephone system that is set up to act as a wall preventing people from getting simple questions answered. If you are old or easily confused you can forget about trying to contact them.

6, I tried to report them to the financial ombudsman but they did nothing.

I have been a Birmingham Midshires saver for 40 years I recently transferred a large sum of money (large for me anyway) to my savings account and it hasn’t arrived due to them changing their clearing bank details. I called the call centre for help but because the staff are working from home they can’t speak to the department who could look into this. I’m devastated at the thought of losing all the money I’ve saved hard for.

AVOID AT ALL COST! The only company that refuses to help people who are self-isolating due to Lifethreatening illness. The entire world have moved online, even solicitors are able to certify documents via zoom. Birminghammidshires refused to help putting us into the impossible position where we have to just leave the money sitting in the account. We are in Highlands, the nearest branch is 300 miles away and they insist we go there to show the proof od ID!!! This is for someone who going through extensive chemotherapy and not option to travel even locally. We will be taking to the newspapers!

Abysmal service.
How about employing some more staff to answer the phones.
And how about returning to work .

Worst mortgage company in the world. Anything owned by Lloyd's goes the same way. They take over great companies and then run them into the ground with poor service etc.
As with all Lloyd's owned companies BM Solutions avoid answering the telephone, ignore emails, ignore letters are incompetent in the extreme.
If it were not for the Government bail out money they get pumped into them they would have vanished thirty years ago.
You must avoid this lot at all costs or they will either frustrate you to the point of suicide or ruin you financially with their sheer and utter financial and business idiocy.
Another fine mess Lloyd's has gotten itself into.

I've had a mortgage for over 14 years. 3 month pandemic break, as was unsure if tenanted as its in England. We're in N.I. After 6 months I had collections ringing and saying that they could NOT reactivate the DD to them, I am in serious arrears. They refused any form of payment I offered, credit card, cheque, partners a/c, parents a/c. Before Xmas they insisted that me and my mother who is disabled go to her bank, as that what where the rent goes into. We sent them the money in the rent a/c and I sent the difference from my a/c. Next this debt collectors arrive on the front doorstep and have it out with me, infront of neighbours, insisted I get my phone and ring this number to deal with that collections dept. That guy is a real piece of work. He was the 1 that had forced us to go to the bank, just a few weeks before! I should have mentioned, they kept sending me DD forms, which said they came with self addressed envelopes. Not a single 1 did! I have handed it in directly to our bank and now posted them to them, at 3 different addresses, 7 times. On the 7th May it was our daughters 18th and I opened a letter from them informing me they were now seizing the property etc. This caused me to have 2 grandmal seizures, the first in several years, dislocated my shoulder and have destroyed my knee. So now, I have had to increase epilepsy meds, taking Fentanyl & having to attend Ortho & physio. I wil NOT be allowed to drive for at least a year, which is a nightmare in itself, as I am in a remote location. I am now dealing with the complaints dept, who sent a letter which arrived today, saying that they were dismissing my complaint and that they still, again have NOT setup the DD!!!! Again, I am 3 months in arrears, even though the money is in the rent a/c! This is 12 months that they haven't done it and they have shredded ALL our credit files...

NOTE THEY ARE A SUBSIDUARY OF LLOYDS AND LLOYDS ARE THE 1ST BANK TO START BUYOING UP PRIVATE PROPERTIES IN THE UK!!! THIS IS A PLOY SO THAT WE HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO GIVE IT UPTO THEM, AS NOW WITH OUR CREDIT FILES DESTROYED... CHEQUE-MATE!!! PUN INTENDED!

Would give minus rating, but, unlike my credit file, its not an option.

I have 2 buy to let commercial mortgages and I have to be honest and say BM has been excellent in the support and helpfulness during the pandemic. I have one tenant who is terminally ill, and they were very sympathetic to the matter. I am very happy with BM and an excellent company to deal with and very friendly and polite staff on the phone.

I have been a mortgage customer with them for 14 years. Unfortunately due to this pandemic I was made redundant and had to claim Universal Credit. This is where the problem started. DWP claimed they had made 2 payments, lender said not received. Nobody wants to do anything. So far I have made over 7 hours worth of phone calls trying to get this rectified. Lender so far has failed to advise me of arrears, failed to advise of change of contractual monthly payment, breached DDM rules on 7 occasions, set up DDM without my authority. Needless to say I have put in a complaint, which has been acknowledged but nothing else. Financial Ombudsman is aware as I have a complaint in with them, that they will look at after the necessary 8 weeks for Birmingham Midshires to investigate. Not long to go now.

I am in the progress of remortgaging my home. I also have an additional buy to let mortgage with BM. As part of the process the company I was remortgaging with asked me to provide a letter from BM detailing that the mortgage I had with them was a buy-to-let. I rang BM to ask for this letter. Initially they sent an e-mail but because their security procedures do not allow any detail to be sent via the internet the e-mail was deemed insufficient by the new lender. I rang them again to ask them to post me a letter with all the details in it. they assured me that it would be sent out that day. I waited a week and received nothing so I rang again. They apologised but assured me it had been sent. I checked that they had the correct address and asked them to resend it. Again, they promised it would be sent that day. Another week passed with no letter. I rang again and asked to speak to a supervisor. The person I spoke to persuaded me that she would be able to resolve the issue as she knew someone who was in the office that day and would personally ask them to put the letter in the post. I have now waited another 4 working days and no letter. It is staggering that in the 21st century a company does not have secure e-mail facilities but the fact that they are incapable of posting a lettering is truly staggering. I'm sure if I missed a mortgage payment they would figure out how to post a letter to me!!

Shockingly awful experience reporting a bereavement. When I explained that I had already reported the death to their Banking Group who they have permissions to share data with they simply told me that it wasn't their process to check. When I pointed out that it was their legal obligation to check for themselves they told me to write to head office and hung up the phone. Terrible.

CANNOT CONTACT. UPTEEN OPTIONS THEN NO ANSWER JUST A MESSAGE TELLING HOW BUSY THEY ARE BEFORE BEING CUT OFF.

Profoundly unhelpful in dealing with a bereavement, adding greatly to the stress. Demand original death certificate (no other bank/building soc did); didn't acknowledge letter. Refused to discuss anything, even though I had power of attorney prior to the account holder's death. Horrible experience with this building society.

Would give them 0 if I could, having been with b and m for over 16 years never missed a payment. Very poor service all round. Unhelpful, arrogant call handlers who simply don’t care about their customers. You get passed from pillar to post, nobody seems to deal with your problems and have no customer empathy through global pandemic. Do not touch with a barg pole, wish we hadn’t the trouble they have cause us and our credit file is unbelievable. Banking ombudsman are dealing with our third complaint in six months. That’s tells you how terrible they are as a company.