... I also wanted a society that is not too small (the Yorkshire is the fourth largest building society) and in good financial health. The YBS fits the bill perfectly.
My branch is very small and located between Ilford town centre and Gants Hill. It is five miles from where I live but easy ... Read review
Advantages: Good interest, friendly staff Disadvantages: Make sure your identity documents are recent
...is not too small (the Yorkshire is the fourth largest building society) and in good financial health. The YBS fits the bill perfectly.
My branch is very small and located between Ilford town centre and Gants Hill. It is five miles from where I live but easy to get to. The staff consists of three girls, one on the counter and two working in the office. What I liked right away was the fact that there were no queues - you are never likely ... ...rating.
The Yorkshire Building Society offers a multitude of other savings accounts including on-line ones. I've found that the YBS, with the exception of the Regular Saver, seem to take a middle of the road approach with no outstanding accounts and no really poor ones. As far as mortgages are concerned, the YBS boast of being the 2006 Lender of the Year in Mortgage Magazine and gaining the Lender Excellence Gold Award in Lender Strategy ... more
I was looking for a building society with a local branch and a good rate of interest for a regular savings account. I also wanted a society that is not too small (the Yorkshire is the fourth largest building society) and in good financial health. The YBS fits the bill perfectly.
My branch is very small and located between Ilford town centre and Gants Hill. It is five miles from where I live but easy to get to. The staff consists of three girls, one on the counter and two working in the office. What I liked right away was the fact that there were no queues - you are never likely to have more than one person before you. After having the experience of waiting for ages in the queue at Abbey National, you can only be impressed.
I chose YBS's Regular Saver because it gives a really good interest rate - currently 7% including bonus - without many of the conditions found with other building societies and banks. Unlike most high interest regular savers, it does not last for just one year, after which you are expected to transfer the money into a relatively low paying nominated account, but is open ended. The interest rate is variable, not fixed, and is influenced by the decisions of the Bank of England. As things stand, interest rates are more likely to rise than fall. The minimum you are expected to pay in every month is £10 and the maximum is £500 or any sum in between (it doesn't have to be on the same day in the month). To make the most of this sort of account, you should try to save as much as you can even if it means moving some money from a standard easy access account ( they only have a top interest rate of about 5.8%) but YBS won't allow you to save more than a total of £20,000. It would take 40 months to reach this amount if you paid in the maximum monthly amount of £500. The best plan is to cut down to £10 per month in the months before the £20,000 is reached ensuring the account is kept open and you always get high interest on your savings. You are allowed to make one partial withdrawal per year without affecting the bonus. Two further withdrawals are allowed but you will lose your bonus. If you think you might do this, it is better not to open the account because,without the bonus, the interest rate is pitiful. You also have the flexibility of paying in with the passport book or a standing order. All that is necessary is to ensure a deposit between £10 and £500 is paid into the account every month. I have started using a standing order but it is nice to know I can always go to the branch if I want. When setting up the standing order, the sort code is 60-92-04, the YBS account number is the first 8 digits of the account number in your passbook and the reference number is the full 10 digits.
Filling in the application form was OK with no pressure from the staff. The only thing different from other places was the scheme where the odd few pence from your yearly interest goes to charity. You can opt out of it if you are really hard up or just plain mean. There was a slight hiccup when I presented my identification. If you give them a bill as identification, it has to be recent - within the last three months. But if you pay by direct debit for nearly everything like I do, you don't get that many bills. They got around this, however, by checking my identity with Experian. I don't know what would have happened if I had had no loans or credit cards and thus no credit rating.
The Yorkshire Building Society offers a multitude of other savings accounts including on-line ones. I've found that the YBS, with the exception of the Regular Saver, seem to take a middle of the road approach with no outstanding accounts and no really poor ones. As far as mortgages are concerned, the YBS boast of being the 2006 Lender of the Year in Mortgage Magazine and gaining the Lender Excellence Gold Award in Lender Strategy magazine.
If you are a carpet bagger, you are likely to be out of luck. There are no signs that they are going to demutalise and, if they did, you would not qualify for a payout until you have been with the society for five years. If they demutalised before this time, your share of the windfall would go to charity. The Regular Saver is a good long term account so I will probably qualify but.,if the interest rates become uncompetitive, I will have no compunction in leaving. Loyalty counts for very little these days.
There is still, however, a possibility of a windfall if the YBS merges with another building society, the favourite being its stablemate, the Britannia Building Society. The two societies already have an arrangement called MutualPlus where its is possible to use Britannia branches to pay your mortgage or pay into or withdraw from certain selected savings accounts. Unfortunately, the Regular Savings account is not included.
In conclusion, I am pleased with the Society so far and would recommend everyone to do themselves a favour and open a Regular Saver - just be aware of the conditions which are not particularly odious.
Advantages: Resolutely mutual; good interest rates Disadvantages: No current accounts
...a mutual building society, the Yorkshire has shown that it is considering its members’ interests in staying that way. Their interest rates are still among the best, and you don’t have to present them with a minimum amount of something like £5,000 to open an account. They were highly instrumental in reducing the charges for cash machine withdrawals, with their “Stop the charges” campaign.
So, if you, like me, are still interested ... ...each year, the small pence in your account (never more than 99p) is donated to the Yorkshire Building Society Charitable Foundation. For anyone mean enough to want to, they can arrange for this to be stopped.
For details of branches, and up to date interest rates: www.yorkshirebuildingsociety.co.uk ...
rsmith 06.01.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Yorkshire Building Society
Advantages: Mutual, better branches, good service, good rates on products. Disadvantages: Slightly sly on the charity point, and very few ATMs.
The Yorkshire is the 3rd biggest building society in the UK. It’s products are often in the Best Buy tables, and it’s hailed as a mutual hero.
The YBS has it’s own charity, the YBS foundation, which all members promise to give their windfalls to should, in the unlikely event, the society become plc in the 5 years following the account being opened (like Halifax, Abbey National ect.). But read the application forms carefully, unless ... ...it’s be fairer if the Yorkshire asked you to opt In, instead of opt OUT…
The society’s highly praised Happy Kids account, is also sneaky. All that’s due, it does pay a good rate of interest, with instant access and £10 min. balance. But until very recently, it also had a link to the NSPCC. It pledged £1 for each account opened, and 10% of the interest earned. But look in the new style leaflet, and all mention of this link ...
7sefton 12.10.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Yorkshire Building Society
Advantages: None in my experience Disadvantages: An awful lot
I have been with the Yorkshire Building Society for about 6 years now. I first started with them because I couldn't open a bank account for love nor money, just a building society account. I joined up for their cashcard account. It was ok at first but I advise anyone not to get a direct debit paid from this account as I have experienced more trouble than a reoccuring boil on the bum.
My daughter is in the happy kids account and I can safetly say ... ...account with them than the yorkshire gives her.
I am closing my Yorkshire Building society account as I am so disattisfied with them because of the way they have handled my account.
Whenever a mistake is made by them they charge you £25 and won't admit that they have made a mistake. I have had more satisfaction from Barclays Bank in their ability to rectify and amend Direct debit payments, I get better returns and they are efficient and friendly. ...
mirrah 23.12.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Yorkshire Building Society
Advantages: Top rates, great service, online access Disadvantages: Sign away membership writes for 5 years
...of products offered by the Yorkshire Building Society is anything to go by then it's probably true.
The range of savings is not overly fancy or over-engineered but if your looking for a plain vanilla savings accounts then you cann't really go far wrong.
The eye catching top account is the e-isa (it pays 5.2% as of 10 Aug, although that will probably fall following last week's interest rate decision). This is pretty competitive and isn't falsely ... ...sign away membership for 5 years. Yorkshire BS is a good example of a mutual working well so you wouldn't probably want it to demutualise but I think as a depositer it's preferable to know if it did go that you would get a windfall.
Overall, a good offering. ...
mason22 10.08.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Yorkshire Building Society
Advantages: great small building society with a good range of accounts Disadvantages: none
The yorkshie building society is a traditional building society which really does seem to be there for its members not only in the range of accounts competitive intrest rates on mortgages and savings accounts but on that old fashioned thing called costomer care. I have been saving with them for a number of years and when one of my accounts became an obselte one I was alerted to the fact practically straight away and changed to the new higher interest ...
jo1l 28.07.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Yorkshire Building Society
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The BuildingSociety
This account is from the YorkshireBuildingSociety (referred to from now on as YBS). I don't know anything about their history but the following excerpt is from their website -
"The Yorkshire was the first buildingsociety to commit itself to remaining a mutual at a time when some of our rivals decided to become banks. In this and many other ways, we have led the way in demonstrating that membership of a mutual buildingsociety brings a whole range of important benefits to investors and borrowers alike."
They have a nationwide network of 131 branches including ones in ...
