Customer Arrears Agent

Customer Arrears Agent

Location: Remote (UK residents only)

Start Date: 10th February 2025

Working Hours: Monday - Friday 09:00 - 17:30

Salary: Up to £24,500 + 25 days holiday and a fantastic range of benefits which can be foundHERE

About Us

When we started Kensington, we were the first specialist lender to offer mortgages to people the high street turned down. Over 25 years later, we are the UK's leading specialist mortgage lender still blazing a trail offering people the chance to get a mortgage. Where high street lenders see black and white, we have always used our expertise and manual underwriting capability to see the shades in between. In a market where changing lifestyles mean more people are falling outside the traditional mortgage criteria, it is an approach that can make a real difference to people who want to own a property.

It is what we call the Kensington Difference.

Kensington Mortgage Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Barclays Bank UK PLC and the principal activity of the Company is the origination and servicing of mortgage assets. The Company is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority for regulated activities.

What You Will Be Doing

The role involves communicating with early arrears customers and third parties regarding mortgage payment difficulties and assessing the reasons for arrears, the customer's financial and personal circumstances, including any vulnerability and identifying suitable solutions.

Our Customer Arrears Support Team are the first point of contact for customers predominantly 0-3 months in arrears. Agents will speak to customers over the telephone about their arrears balances with an aim to rehabilitate them, whether that is agreeing an arrangement, sending out a regulated third party or sign posting them to an external organisation for further help and support.

Agents will handle customer correspondence, attempt contact to resolve queries and log any complaints, aiming to resolve them at first point of contact within the department.

Key Accountabilities

• To fully understand customer circumstances/financial difficulty including customer vulnerability and identify appropriate resolutions such as arrangements to pay or forbearance.
• Support high volume calls and/or transactions across the wider area.
• Resolve challenging customer communications and queries regarding payment difficulties and arrears to effective resolution.
• To navigate customers through the mortgage pre-litigation process.
• Plan and prioritise allocated workloads against agreed service standards within the early arrears area.
• Ensure all work is completed in line with applicable policy, procedure and regulation whilst utilising judgement to resolve issues.
• Resolve queries or referrals from both within and outside of the team.

What You Will Need

• Collections/arrears experience gained within a telephony environment is essential (within the financial services/mortgage industry would be advantageous).
• Good understanding of vulnerable customers and identifying vulnerability.
• Good understanding of support options/sign posting.
• Strong negotiation and reasoning skills for effective resolutions such as income and expenditure completion, agreeing arrangements to pay etc.
• The ability to effectively probe and question as well as show empathy to customers.
• The ability to effectively communicate and respond to customers in challenging situations both verbally and in writing.
• Possess strong objection handling skills and problem resolving skills to quickly resolve customer complaints.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications and the ability to navigate confidently and quickly around multiple systems, whilst speaking to customers over the telephone is essential.

Desirable Skills

• Good understanding of forbearance options.
• Good understanding of FCA regulations including money laundering, data protection and consumer duty.

*Please note that we can only consider your application if you are available to start on the 10th February 2025 and to ensure you get the most out of our training, we ask that you avoid taking annual leave during the first 7 weeks.

Why Join Kensington Mortgages

Our employees are critical to our success. We work hard to ensure that Kensington Mortgages is a great place to work. We recognise the difference it makes to our business when people challenge themselves and take advantage of the development opportunities available, so we try and support everyone however we can.

We also recognise the fact that people seek work life balance and continuously develop our benefits offering to create an inclusive and supportive culture where differences that exist between us all are recognised, understood and valued.

We are an inclusive, anti-racist and equal opportunity employer that values diversity. This means we respect and embrace differences in gender, identity, race, ethnic origin, sexual expression and orientation, religion, faith, age, marital status, disability, neurodiversity, social background, education and way of thinking. We believe in the strength of diversity and see inclusion as a strategic advantage. We are a place where you can be you.

As a reputable employer regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, all offers of employment for this role are subject to a series of background checks, including criminal (DBS) and financial checks.

If you care deeply about making customers happy and want to make a `Difference' - we would love to hear from you.