The Moneywise Customer Service Awards 2017 has once again seen awards and commendations for members of the International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation (ICMIF) with other mutual players in the insurance, banking and healthcare sectors also gaining recognition.

Now in its ninth year, the survey saw 50,000 customers vote for the country’s most trusted financial services companies. The number of participants in the survey means that the Moneywise Awards are the result of the biggest poll of financial services customers of its kind in the UK.

Moneywise magazine says voters were asked which companies they used for various financial services and asked to rate them on criteria such as customer service, value for money and trustworthiness.

York-based mutual healthcare provider Benenden was named most trusted corporate health insurance provider. This is the sixth time in seven years that Benenden has won this award.

Benenden provides discretionary personal healthcare services for more than 800,000 members across the UK. The company also received a highly commended certificate in the general ‘Health Insurance Provider’ category.

Helen Smith, Commercial Director at Benenden said: “Benenden has a long history of providing high quality healthcare services for businesses, but has recently invested in a greater focus on the employer market. Therefore we’re so proud to be recognised for our efforts to help employers reduce absenteeism in the workplace and maintain their employees’ health and wellbeing.”

Helen Smith continued: “We know that it’s our members that vote for us, and that makes it a special award. Whatever we do, we place a focus on members at the heart of our decision-making, ensuring that our services are high quality and that our business is sustainable. It’s also great that we continue our strong performance in the general Most Trusted Health Insurance category.”

Insurer NFU Mutual won most trusted home insurance provider and was highly commended in most trusted car insurance provider. This is the fifth year in a row that NFU Mutual has won the most trusted home insurance provider award with Moneywise.

Ian Flower, Propositions Manager at NFU mutual said; ““We are delighted to have scooped Most Trusted Home Insurance Provider for the fifth year in a row. We work very hard to ensure our customer service is of the highest standard and the very ethos of NFU Mutual is to make sure we are a great company to do business with, so to win this award because our members trust us is fantastic and it means a lot that they’ve taken the time to vote for us!”

Other UK based mutuals, building societies and friendly societies which received awards or commendations from Moneywise were:

• LV= Most trusted insurer and also most trusted life insurance provider – a category in which Royal London was highly commended.
• Coventry Building Society Best provider of savings accounts for large deposits and most trusted buy-to-let mortgage provider with a commendation in the best provider for regular savers and in most trusted savings and cash ISA provider categories.
• Nationwide Building Society Best provider of children’s savings accounts and highly commended in best current account provider for branch service category.
• Yorkshire Building Society Highly commended in most trusted mortgage provider category.
• John Lewis Best credit card provider for rewards and highly commended in most trusted pet insurance provider and most trusted credit card provider categories

Moneywise says that their Customer Service Awards are the authoritative stamp of approval by UK customers of financial services given the number of participants in this survey of financial consumers in Britain.

The Moneywise Customer Service Awards Survey 2017 ran between 1st January and 31st March – more than 50,000 people took part. They were asked which companies they used for various financial services and then asked to rate them on criteria such as customer service, value for money and trustworthiness. All providers were considered subject to receiving a minimum of 100 ratings from their customers.