Yorkshire Building Society is one of the biggest building societies in the UK. It has over a million members and over £15 billion in assets. The Yorkshire BS is a mutual organisation run for the benefit of its members and not shareholders.
They offer an extensive variety of mortgage products ranging from first time buyers all through to property investors.
The Yorkshire is a mutual society, so it doesn’t have to pay money to shareholders. Their policy is to put that benefit into offering consistently low variable rates, giving you a better deal. They offer excellent first time buyer deals, especially if you want reduced fees.
They have a very informative guide for first time buyers.
However the Yorkshire is not a good choice for buyers with bad credit and early redemption charges can be very high.
Their mortgages are competitive on the basis of being simple. The Yorkshire Building Society has the following products:
Offset accounts
Bank of England Trackers
Fixed Rate products
First Time Buyer products
Fresh Start Service
100% Home Mover product
Unlike some other lenders’ products, their offset mortgage has aspects. For example, no big initial deposit and no need to deposit salary credits directly into the account.
They offer a wide variety of fixed rate mortgages, and some include “Fee Assist”, where a contribution to your legal and administrative fees, usually £250, will be refunded on completion. First time buyers are offered some useful features, for example, a no-deposit, no-fees mortgage with a lower tracker rate.
The only caveat: watch out for high early-redemption penalties, a Yorkshire Building Society mortgage can carry up to an enormous 3% penalty for early redemption. Fees are also suspiciously unclear on the site.
YOUR PROPERTY MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT MAINTAIN YOUR MORTGAGE REPAYMENTS.
The Society offers features on all mortgages, including:
Daily Interest
Interest is charged at the end of each day on the outstanding balance. Be wary, if you miss or are late with payments, more interest will be charged.
Overpayments and underpayments are generally available with Yorkshire mortgages; however there may be limits on the amount of overpayments
Overpayments
Pay more than your usual monthly payment and you could potentially cut years off your loan.
Or make occasional lump sum payments over the usual monthly payment.
Any additional payments you make will immediately reduce your mortgage balance and thus lower the amount of interest you are charged.
This can also help lower future payments or, if you prefer, the length of time remaining on your mortgage.
Underpayment and payment holidays
If you have previous overpayments, you can underpay or take a break from making your usual monthly payments up to the amount you have previously overpaid.
Underpayments or payment holidays have to be agreed in advance and will increase the amount of interest you are charged.
Interest continues to be charged during payment holidays.
Early Repayment Charges
Early repayment charge may be payable with some, but not all, of Yorkshire Building Society mortgage products. Cases when this may apply include:
repay (redeem) your loan in full
repay in excess of any overpayment limits
transfer (in full or part) to a different product or to our Standard Variable Rate
The loan has to be repaid in full at the end of your mortgage term, and you have to ensure suitable arrangements for this. Premiums will be payable directly to the provider of any repayment vehicle.