The J.D. Power 2025 U.S. Mortgage Servicer Satisfaction StudySM, released July 24, says, "Customer satisfaction with mortgage servicers has plummeted in 2025, with an average satisfaction score that is now 131 points (on a 1,000-point scale) lower than the average score for mortgage originators. Increasingly, the difference between the two comes down to effective communication and customer service."
In other words, homeowners are increasingly dissatisfied with the service they receive from companies that collect their mortgage payments and manage their accounts.
What's a Mortgage Servicer, Exactly?
You get to choose the company from which you get your mortgage. That's called the mortgage originator because it approves your application, underwrites the loan, and provides the required funds on closing.
However, mortgage originators typically sell your mortgage to investors soon after closing. They bundle it up with a group of other mortgages into a type of bond called a mortgage-backed security (MBS). Investors buy those bonds and collect the interest. This provides fresh cash that the originator can use to fund more mortgages.
Once your mortgage is sold, you should receive a letter telling you to make payments to a mortgage servicer. This company administers your account for a fee and passes on your payments to the new owners of your mortgage.
Unfortunately, neither you nor your originator gets any say in picking your mortgage servicer. And your mortgage's owner is incentivized to choose the company with a good history of collecting and passing on payments, but for the lowest fees.
Consumers: Servicer Communication is Lacking
Bruce Gehrke, senior director of lending intelligence at J.D. Power, said in a statement, "[Mortgage] Rates are still high, volumes are down." The solution, according to Gehrke, is to use servicing as a positive touchpoint.
"However, without delivering on important loyalty and advocacy metrics, servicers could be headed for some challenges down the road when volumes pick back up again.”
The J.D. Power press release says just 31% of mortgage servicer customers gave an excellent or perfect rating to their servicer for messaging that got their attention. "Attention-getting is rated higher when there is a level of personalization added to the communication."
The study says that 46% of consumers recall account alerts, the highest type of communication cited.
Communication ratings are falling, however. "Just 32% of customers give their mortgage servicer a high overall communication rating, down 5 percentage points from 2022."
Another cause of dissatisfaction is rising escrow costs. As many as 57% of survey respondents cited those as an issue. Of course, much of this is beyond the control of mortgage servicers as property taxes and homeowners insurance premiums move relentlessly higher.
Still, in the new survey, servicers scored an average satisfaction score of 596 out of 1,000, down from 606 in 2024. And that compares badly with mortgage originators' average score of 727.
That's not too surprising, however. Customers likely have little or no personal relationship with their servicer other than writing an oversized check each month. But they likely recall, if nothing else, a small personal connection to the loan officer from their homebuying experience.
Mortgage Servicers Who Shine
The new survey showed a wide range of customer satisfaction scores: from 469 out of 1,000 to 685. The five best performing mortgage servicers were:
- Rocket Mortgage
- Guild Mortgage
- Regions Mortgage
- Chase
- Bank of America
Unfortunately, this isn't actionable information since you can't choose your servicer.
Consumers, in theory, could refinance to get another servicer. But there's no guarantee they won't simply end up with the same one.
The best you can do is, when buying a home, ask your lender who they generally sell loans to, then hope for the best.
