Yorkshire Building Society launches new rate fixed offset mortgages

Yorkshire Building Society (YBS) has launched a new range of fixed rate offset mortgage products with interest rates starting at 3.99%.

These new mortgage products are offered for 2, 3 and 5 year fixed rate terms.

Each is available as an offset account if required.

The 2 year fixed offset with a minimum 40% deposit has a fixed rate of 3.99% until 30 April 2011. Thereafter it reverts to the standard variable rate (SVR).

There is a £495 fee of which £195 is payable on application and non refundable. The balance of £300 is added to your mortgage on completion.

There is an early repayment fee of 3% before 30 April 2011. Be aware though that this is calculated on the total amount borrowed regardless of whether you have made any overpayments during the fixed rate period and thereby reduced the total amount borrowed.

There are a range of incentives being offered, including £250 cash back which would be paid into the offset savings account. Alternatively for remortgagees there is the option of a free standard valuation and free legal advice.

If your Loan to Value (LTV) need to be greater and you only for example have a 25% deposit then the 2 year fixed rate on the offset mortgage increases to 4.09% from the 3.99% offered for a 40% deposit or more.

As with other mortgage providers, YBS are encoraging smaller LTV mortgages and as such offering the best deals on these.

If you do only have a 10% deposit the 2 year fixed rate on this offset mortgage jumps to 4.99%.

For other terms the interest rates start at

• 4.59% on 25% deposit for 3 years fixed until 30 April 2012
• 4.99% on 25% deposit for 5 years fixed until 30 April 2014

Mortgage Product Manager at the Yorkshire Building Society, Tom Girling, said ‘There is growing awareness of the benefits of offsetting in reducing the overall cost of a mortgage. With interest rates remaining at extremely low levels there is now the opportunity to keep the overall cost of a mortgage down and pay less tax at the same time. Another factor to take into consideration is that with savings rates falling recently it has increased the attractiveness of using an offset account to save on mortgage interest.’

YBS is one of the largest building societies with 143 branches and is committed to mutuality.