Britannia Building Society Mortgages

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, so I had to deal with the West ...
...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 ... Read review

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 ... Read review

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). ... Read review

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 ... Read review

Advantages: Online ISA that's hassle free with a good interest rate
Disadvantages: It is possible to get a higher rate elsewhere

...in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Belfast, Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Norwich, Cardiff, Bristol and London, and are backed up by a network of agencies. They also have a sharing arrangement called MutualPlus with Britannia Building Society, this allows you to make mortgage repayments, withdrawals and deposits on a number of their accounts. The Account The account I am reviewing today is their e-ISA account. I opened one of these In May last year - my first ever ISA (Individual Savings Account)! The current interest rate for this account is 4.90% AER (effective from 28th August 2005). As the name suggests this is an online ISA account. It is my understanding that in order to open any ISA account you must be aged 16 or over and must be a UK resident or Crown employee serving overseas. Basically a cash mini ISA allows you... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

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 building societies, 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 you... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Excellent information, accurate and comprehensive.
Disadvantages: Obviously other people don't read it properly

...information then goes on to give a list of all previous searches such as the one done by the Britannia Building Society 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 at the defamation of my character by them and asking for the £2 that I had... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful