The Greater Building Society has been judged Australia’s best provider of home loans and savings accounts based on feedback independently gathered from more than 23,000 people covering more than 180 providers of financial services.

The Greater has taken out three major awards in the 2011 Mozo People’s Choice Awards including Best Home Loan Provider, Best Savings Accounts Provider as well as being named Australia’s Best Building Society for the second year running. It achieved an overall rating of 9.18, the best overall rating of any financial institution.

Over the past 12 months people rated their financial institution on mozo.com.au across six criteria: overall satisfaction, price, features, customer service, convenience and trust. According to Mozo the Greater achieved an overall customer satisfaction of 94%, the highest score of any financial institution.

Customers scored the Greater exceptionally highly on “trust” and “customer service.

Greater head of strategy Chris Hodgins said to be voted the nation’s best provider of home loans and savings accounts entirely by real customers is testimony to the quality of the products we offer and our commitment to deliver outstanding service.

“Our customer satisfaction rating is something our staff are incredibly proud of and these awards are a real credit to them,” Mr Hodgins said.

“Unlike the major banks we exist for our customers rather than shareholders and put people before profits,” he said

“We have seen an increasing number of bank and other financial institution customers swapping their home loan and accounts to the Greater because they are sick of higher home loan interest rates and fees and poor service,” he said.

“This award shows there are real alternatives to the major banks for home loans and other financial services.”

The Mozo awards follow the Greater being named 2011 Building Society of the Year in the Australian Banking and Finance Awards. A total of 12 of its home loans have also been given the highest five star rating in the Canstar Cannex 2011 Home Loan Awards.

Mozo.com.au is an online finance comparison and reviews service, launched in October 2008 to help Australians navigate the money maze. Mozo (short for Money Zone) is the first service to combine financial product comparison tools with customer ratings and reviews, allowing Australians to compare banking products and providers on everything from interest rates to customer service.

The Greater Building Society is one of Australia’s largest building societies operating in NSW, South-east Queensland and Townsville. One of Australia’s Top 200 private companies (BRW 2011), it has 67 branches, 700 staff and assets worth more than $4 billion.

MEDIA ENQUIRIES: Greater: Craig Eardley on 0437 477 493. Web: www.greater.com.au Mozo: Kirsty Lamont on 02 9037 4372 Web: www.mozo.com.au/peopleschoice