Yorkshire Building Society – YBS

The Yorkshire Building Society – YBS – is the second largest in the UK with a net income of approximately £8.8 million. The society was founded in 1864 and has steadily grown through its own activities and by merging with other societies, notably the Chelsea and is in talks to merge with Norwich and Peterborough.
Although it has a distinguished history, the Yorkshire is at the forefront of electronic banking. All account management tasks can be done online, including applying for a mortgage. The society is very customer focused and is very helpful. Unusually, they are happy to re-mortgage within the society’s product range. In other words, they will allow a borrower to change deals rather than lose them to another lender in a re-mortgage arrangement.
The Yorkshire has a full range of mortgage products including:
• Variable rate mortgages which may have a discount period in the first few years
• Fixed rate mortgages for various rates at various periods
• Fixed rate rollover deals where a new fixed rate may be obtained when the period of the existing fixed rate expires
• Tracker mortgages where the rate keeps pace with the Bank of England Base rate. These often have a “Collar” which is the lowest rate that will apply to the loan
• First time buyer discount mortgages
• Shared ownership mortgage
• Re-mortgages
• Buy to Let mortgages