... I shopped around and found that the best deal would be with the Britannia Building Society, as they would give me a discounted interest rate whilst I remained a member of my trade union, Unison.
I have also continued paying my policy with Sun Life, so I shall have a lump sum at the end ... Read review
Advantages: Good personal service and good rates Disadvantages: No branch in my hometown of Walsall
...deal would be with the Britannia Building Society, as they would give me a discounted interest rate whilst I remained a member of my trade union, Unison.
I have also continued paying my policy with Sun Life, so I shall have a lump sum at the end of the mortgage AND the mortgage will already be paid off, so it will be a bonus to me. But I digress…..
We do not have a branch of Britannia in Walsall where I live, ... ...
The Britannia have decided to remain a building society and all the savers and borrowers get a loyalty bonus each year based on amounts saved and/or repaid. All members are allocated a number of points based on the following criteria: -
Savings Account – one point for every £100 invested (based on monthly average balance over the year)
Mortgage Account – one point for every £1 monthly subscription due (based ... more
About four years ago I received the annual statement from Sun Life Assurance regarding my mortgage endowment and, being an accountant, I did a few calculations to see roughly what the final figure would be at the end of the term. I was horrified by what appeared to be quite a shortfall in endowment to mortgage outstanding!
Since the returns from the policy were not going to be enough to pay off the mortgage at the end of the term I had a choice to either take out a further policy or change my mortgage. I decided to change my mortgage from an endowment mortgage to a repayment mortgage. I shopped around and found that the best deal would be with the Britannia Building Society, as they would give me a discounted interest rate whilst I remained a member of my trade union, Unison.
I have also continued paying my policy with Sun Life, so I shall have a lump sum at the end of the mortgage AND the mortgage will already be paid off, so it will be a bonus to me. But I digress…..
We do not have a branch of Britannia in Walsall where I live, so I had to deal with the West Bromwich branch. I was very impressed by the standard of service that I got. I was sent all relevant information by post and I had numerous telephone conversations with the gentleman at West Bromwich dealing with my mortgage and nothing was too much trouble for him.
I have been impressed with the way that the mortgage has been administered over the last four years. When the interest rates have changed the decreases are applied to the account as fast as the increases are, which in my experience is unusual in itself!
I am now waiting for a few more months until the five years for which I agreed to keep the mortgage are complete and then I shall transfer to one of their flexible mortgages. I expect to do so with the same degree of ease experienced when I transferred my original mortgage.
I have also taken out both buildings and contents insurances with them. I have checked out insurances elsewhere and cannot find anything any better or cheaper. I have made a couple of claims in the insurances and have been impressed by the efficient and speedy service that I have received.
The Britannia have decided to remain a building society and all the savers and borrowers get a loyalty bonus each year based on amounts saved and/or repaid. All members are allocated a number of points based on the following criteria: - Savings Account – one point for every £100 invested (based on monthly average balance over the year) Mortgage Account – one point for every £1 monthly subscription due (based on monthly average subscription during the year) Additional Points – 50 points each for insurances, pensions, PEPs, Unit Trusts, Life Endowments, and Health Products.
The value of a point is then calculated by the Building Society and the two are multiplied together to give the Loyalty Bonus. Once a member has been with the Society for 5 years the number of points is multiplied by 1.5 before the financial calculation and once you have been a member for 10 years it is multiplied by 2.
I realise that this is not the same as some of the big payouts that have been made when societies demutualise, but, if this SHOULD happen at least I have my account here ready to receive my share. Until then I will be very happy to receive my Loyalty Bonus each year.
Advantages: Efficient, helpful Disadvantages: No branch in Walsall
...deal would be with the Britannia Building Society, as they would give me a discounted interest rate whilst I remained a member of Unison.
I have also continued paying my policy with Sun Life, so I shall have a lump sum at the end of the mortgage AND the mortgage will already be paid off, so it will be a bonus to me. But I digress…..
We do not have a branch of Britannia in Walsall where I live, so I had to deal with the West Bromwich branch. ... ...I have received.
The Britannia have decided to remain a building society and all the savers and borrowers get a loyalty bonus each year based on amounts saved and/or repaid. All members are allocated a number of points based on the following criteria: -
Savings Account – one point for every £100 invested (based on monthly average balance over the year)
Mortgage Account – one point for every £1 monthly subscription due (based on monthly ...
SusanLesley 10.12.2000 (04.02.2001)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Britannia Building Society Mortgages
Advantages: Friendly - good value Disadvantages: Limited branches
...my partner have been with Britannia for almost 3 years now with their mortgage (and home insurance). We were first-time buyers back in May 2003 and they were incredibly helpful and friendly.
Having a legal background I was familiar with the process, my girlfriend (at the time) was less so. Britannia explained how everything would go and their advice on mortgages was outstanding.
We had toured all the usual suspects (HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland ... ...May 05. Both times, Britannia were in the Daily Mail best buy sections - only wish we had plumped for longer on the first mortgage as our rate went up to 4.49%. We did however, manage to convince them to waive the admin fees (usually waived for new customers only ;) ) which was nice. An added benefit for Britannia members is their Membership bonus which you are eligible for after 3 years (I think we are due ours in April - but need to find out). ...
mightyred 15.02.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Britannia Building Society Mortgages
Advantages: quick and easy quote given over the phone Disadvantages: some of the questions on the paperwork were confusing
...I changed my mortgage to Britannia so I decided to take a look. I rang for a quote which was done quickly and painlessly over the phone by a very helpful & friendly guy. I already had a great deal with another small company & I wanted to keep the flexibility of being able to pay more in as & when I wanted. I was amazed that my great deal was actually £72 per month more than the Britannia quote & I got to keep all the flexibility I already had.
Added ... ...house & contents insurance and 12 months free domestic emergency cover, a saving of another £16 per month.
If I stay with them long enough they will even give me loyalty payments as well!!
All I can say is they offer great products and that the call centre staff are very friendly & helpful. They constantly let me know where we were up to with the mortgage application which was great too ...
ghis 01.05.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Britannia Building Society Mortgages
Promptness of service
Efficiency of service
Competitiveness of char...
Quick review of Britannia Building Society Mortgages
Well,
Due to britannia's incompetence, the mortgage offer was delivered two weeks late, by which time our buyers had got cold feet and pulled out of the purchase of our house. As a consequence the complete chain has collapsed.
I will be asking Britannia for my arrangement fee back, and also consider legal action due to their complete and utter incompetence. This was a straightforward mortgage extension on an existing account.
For the few of you out there looking for a mortgage company, AVOID Britannia AT ALL COSTS if you want to see your purchase through to completion. ...
moogyt 12.12.2008
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Britannia Building Society Mortgages
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Advantages: Excellent information, accurate and comprehensive. Disadvantages: Obviously other people don't read it properly
giving their credit accounts to?
The credit rating information then goes on to give a list of all previous searches such as the one done by the BritanniaBuildingSociety before allowing us to have our mortgage.
Finally there is a list of ?useful addresses?, which are the addresses of all the organisations listed as previous creditors of mine in case I needed to get in touch with any of them to correct the information held by Experian.
All in all I was very impressed with the speed at which Experian forwarded the information to me, the accuracy of that information and all the supporting explanations and addresses ? an excellent service for £2.
Incidentally I have written to Empire Stores explaining the situation, telling them that I wouldn?t have an account with them if they offered me one now, registering my disgust ...
SusanLesley 30.08.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Experian
Advantages: Mutual society means cashback, excelletn customer care Disadvantages: Savings and mortgage rates are a bit average
Britannia is a mutual buildingsociety, with branches in most towns.
I have both a mortgage and a savings account with them and have been in several branches near where I live recently, for one reason and another, so I thought I'd tell you all about it!
THE MUTUAL BUILDINGSOCIETY
What this means is that Britannia are not a PLC, and beholden to their shareholders, they are a society owned by the members. so when they make a profit, they distribute a portion of that as fairly as possible to all the members. The way they have devised is a loyalty scheme, whereby once you've been a member for two years (with either a mortgage, a savings account, a credit card etc) you get your share of the profits via a points scheme. The more points you have, the more profit you get, up to a maximum of £500 a year. You accumulate points by having ...
Advantages: Cheap rates Disadvantages: Appalling telephone support
Good rates. Bad customer Service.
If you are looking for a cheap deal on a mortgage, with one of the few remaining buildingsocieties, then pick Britannia. Their two year, fixed rate offer, is particularly good and is frequently in the Sunday Times "Best Value" league tables.
But you do pay for it in the quality of call centre customer service. Being forced to wait in a queue to speak to an operator, is unfortunately a fact of life when dealing with banks/telephone providers etc. But Britannia will test your patience to the limit. 10-15 minutes on hold is commonplace. They have this message that says: "we are currently experiencing high call volumes." From my experience, Britannia is ALWAYS in this state!
But they do play some very nice classical music while you wait, so I guess it's not all bad!
To make things worse, once ...
![Britannia Music Club [TV Advertisement]](http://imagesb.ciao.com/iuk/images/icons/no_pic_generic_S.gif){kind=icon}
