What it means to be a member

When you save or take out a mortgage with us, as well as becoming a customer you also become a member – and owner – of our building society.


Watch our video below and discover what it means to be a member.

MEMBERSHIP ENSURES OUR SOCIETY THRIVES, AND MEANS WE CAN CONTINUE TO PROVIDE SECURITY FOR GENERATIONS TO COME.


Our sole purpose is to help people achieve what they want to in life, giving them a greater sense of financial security by providing simple solutions to their core financial needs.

As a building society, we’re a type of business known as a ‘mutual’, meaning we don’t have external shareholders to satisfy, unlike banks who pay their external shareholders a dividend. Instead, it’s our members who are at the heart of all our decisions because they’re both the customers and owners of our society. Every penny we earn is given back to our members in better interest rates* or goes towards paying for the service we provide, or gets re-invested to build a stronger society for the future.
 

IT’S A VIRTUOUS CIRCLE THAT IS MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL TO EVERYONE.


*Our savers received £198.6M more interest than the market average in 2022. YBS Group average savings rate compared to rest of market average rates. Source: CACI’s Current Account and Savings Database (CSDB), Stock. Data Period: January – December 2022.
 

SAVERS AND BORROWERS – A MUTUALLY REWARDING RELATIONSHIP.


When you save or take out a mortgage with us, as well as becoming a customer you also become a member – and owner – of our building society.

When customers save with us, the money they deposit is pooled together with the money from all of our other savers. And it doesn’t matter how much or how little each saver brings, because together this money makes a big difference when we lend it to our borrowers to help them fulfil the dream of owning their own home.

Then, when our borrowers pay us interest on their loans, we give some of that interest back to our savers, in return for leaving their money with us. This makes their savings grow; helping them achieve whatever goals they may have in life – perhaps paying for a child’s wedding or the holiday of a lifetime.

We keep back a bit of the interest we receive to pay for running the society and we also invest some to improve the products and services we offer. Doing this means that we’ll be able to continue to benefit members for generations to come - it’s the reason we were founded over 150 years ago, and why we’re still here today.