Plain English mortgage advice from Progressive

Progressive Building Society has partnered with the Plain English organisation to make their mortgage guides as simple and concise as possible following research that 61% of people do not understand common financial terms*.

Northern Ireland’s largest locally owned financial institution has been awarded the Crystal Mark for its mortgage guide by Plain English who reviewed, assessed and amended the literature to provide a simpler more efficient guide that customers and members can easily understand.

UK research from the Money Advice Service has shown that people have difficulty understanding financial language, with 84% not even reading financial terms and conditions.  According to the Progressive more organisations need to help consumers navigate their way through the confusing world of financial jargon, by providing clarity and simplifying difficult to understand financial terminology.

Speaking about the campaign Declan Moore, Operations Director Progressive Building Society said, “At Progressive we’re committed to putting our members and customers first.  This initiative with Plain English is aimed at making the process of applying for a mortgage as straightforward as possible. Throughout the process we engaged and worked closely with the Plain English team to re-write our mortgage guide which is aimed at helping consumers navigate their way through the sometimes confusing world of financial jargon.

“The new guide also supplements the commitment we continue to make in our branch networks which we are consistently investing in. The information will be used across our 12 branches to help members and customers clearly understand everything they need to know about mortgages, supported by the knowledge and expertise of our in branch advisors.”

According to Liam Reddington from Plain English the new Progressive Mortgage Guide is the most concise document in terms of clarity, layout and language he has ever seen. Commenting he said, “The Progressive Mortgage guide is an outstanding example of how plain English, laid out properly, gives us the best chance to access and act on information the first time we read it. Applying for a mortgage can be an extremely stressful experience but this guide with its clarity, well laid out format and lack of jargon makes the process so much easier.”