Banking Code

The Banking Code is a voluntary code that sets standards for good banking practice, that all of its members have to meet. That way you can be sure we're doing things in your best interests.

We recommend that you read through The Banking Code. You can get a copy from your local branch or from the Banking Code Standards Board website.

We will automatically give you details of the main aims and key commitments of the Code when you open a savings account or take out a personal loan with us.

Unsecured personal loans

For Unsecured Personal Loans of £10,000 and over, the minimum repayment period is 24 months.
You may now contact us using a textphone, please call 0800 096 0407. Information is available in large print, audio and Braille on request. Please call for details. Calls from landline phones are free, however mobile providers may charge.

General Information:
The rate you are offered will depend on credit assessment procedures, your personal circumstances and other related factors. Loans are provided, subject to status, by Britannia Personal Lending Limited, City House, City Road, Chester, CH88 3AN. Registered in England, No. 3416733. Registered Office: Trinity Road, Halifax, West Yorkshire, HX1 2RG. Written quotations are available on request. To apply, you must be at least 18 and a UK resident (excluding the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man). APR and repayment details are correct at the time of publishing. Certain purposes of loan may be excluded or have limited repayment periods; please call us for details on 0800 096 0413. Calls from landline phones are free however mobile providers may charge.

Telephone calls may be recorded for security purposes and monitored under our quality control procedures.

Britannia Personal Loans are provided through Britannia Personal Lending Limited, which is wholly owned by Britannia Building Society and Bank of Scotland plc.

General Insurance Business:
To qualify for Creditcare, you must be between 18 and 65 and in work. As with all insurance schemes there are some limitations but these have been kept to a minimum. All insured customers will receive a copy of the policy which contains full policy details and details of the complaints procedures.

Creditcare is arranged by Britannia Personal Lending Ltd. acting as an agent for the Insurers, St Andrew's Life Assurance plc (Registered No 3104670) (England) and St Andrew's Insurance plc (Registered No 3104671) (England) ("the Companies"), St Andrew's House, Portsmouth Road, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9SA. The Companies will choose English law as the law which applies to the insurance (unless you ask for another law and they agree to this before the commencement date). You can at any time ask for detailed information about their compensation arrangements if they go into liquidation and cannot pay their debts.

Britannia Personal Lending Ltd. and St Andrew's Life Assurance plc and St Andrew's Insurance plc are connected companies as all are part of the same group. Telephone calls to St Andrew's may be monitored or recorded to assist with staff training and for quality control purposes.

If your loan is regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974 and you settle your loan early, you may receive a part refund of premiums which will be used to reduce your settlement figure, provided that you have not made a successful claim. Your refund will not be calculated proportionately but in accordance with the Rule of 78. If you would like examples of how much of your premium will be refunded please write to the lender.

Customer Service Promise:
Our aim is at all times to provide a first class standard of service. However, there may be occasions when you feel that this has not been achieved and should you have any query regarding your insurance, please telephone the insurance helpline on 0870 9052150. BT landline calls to 0870 numbers will be charged at up to 8 pence per minute at all times. A call set up fee of 3 pence per call applies to calls from residential lines. Mobile and other providers' charges may vary. Telephone calls may be monitored and recorded to assist with staff training

If, after taking this action, you are still dissatisfied, you are invited to write to the Customer Liaison Manager of the Insurer. The insurer's address is, St Andrew's House, Portsmouth Road, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9SA.

Should you still remain dissatisfied you may approach the Insurance Ombudsman Bureau at City Gate One, 135 Park Street, London, SE1 9EA. Telephone number 0845 600 6666.

Contacting the Insurance Ombudsman will not affect your right to take legal action.

Data Protection Act Notice regarding Britannia Unsecured Personal Loans:
If you make an application, the information you provide will be held on computer and used in a credit scoring process. An enquiry will be made with Credit Reference Agencies, who will record this fact so that it can be viewed by other Agency users. Your information will also be checked with fraud prevention agencies and if fraud is suspected we will record this and those details will be shared with other subscribing organisations.

You must be entitled to disclose information about any co-applicant or guarantor and anyone else referred to by you, and to authorise us to search and record information at Credit Reference Agencies about each of you. You understand that an "association" will be created at the Credit Reference Agencies, which will link your financial records.

If you apply for insurance your information will be passed to the insurers to enable them to provide the facility. They may also use your information for marketing, statistical analysis and administration purposes. The insurers may make similar fraud prevention checks to those described above.

Any sensitive information obtained will only be processed in order to provide the service requested.

Your personal data will be treated in confidence and will not be disclosed to any third parties however, it may be shared with any company from time to time forming part of the same Group as Bank of Scotland plc together with the Introducer and any associated Companies (if applicable) and the Insurers (if applicable) who may also use it for marketing, research, statistical analysis and administration purposes. If you wish to receive further information on the companies with whom your information may be shared please write to us. Your data may also be disclosed where permitted by law or where you have given your consent. You may be contacted by mail, telephone, fax (if you give your consent), email or other reasonable method with details of products or services offered by one of the above or a selected third party. If you do not want your details to be used for marketing please write to Bank of Scotland plc, Data Unit, FREEPOST NWW15306, City House, City Road, Chester CH88 3YZ . Under the terms of the Act you have the right to obtain a copy of the information held about you upon payment of the appropriate fee.

Our mortgage services

We take providing great products and service seriously. We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority, which is the independent watchdog that regulates financial services.

Choosing a mortgage

There are two levels of service that we can offer to help you select your mortgage with Britannia.

Advised Service: this is available through our branches. We will advise and make a recommendation to you after we have assessed your needs.

Non-Advised service: this is available on our website, through our Contact Centre and in our Branch Network. With the non-advised service, you will not receive advice or a recommendation from us. We may ask some questions to narrow down the selection of products that we will provide details on. You will then need to make your own choice about how to proceed.

We also comply with the European Code of Conduct. The code gives you important protection by defining:

• how your mortgage should be arranged,
• what information you should receive before you commit yourself,
• how your mortgage should be dealt with once it's in place.

Other important information

To apply for a mortgage you must be aged 18 or over.

We strongly recommend that you review your life cover, critical illness and income protection arrangements. If you have a mortgage and/or repayment plan which continues beyond your intended retirement date, you must ensure you will be able to continue to meet your regular repayments after you retire. You must ensure that with Interest Only mortgages a means of repaying the loan at the end of the term will be arranged.

You must take out buildings insurance on your home - this doesn't have to be with us, but we do offer a range of attractive home insurance policies. We also strongly recommend that you review your life cover, critical illness and income protection arrangements.

Loans over £500,000 are available by arrangement only. A first mortgage will be required over the property. The mortgage rate is subject to variation. Early repayment charges may apply. All loans are subject to status, valuation and Rules of the Society, copies of which are available on request.

YOUR HOME MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON YOUR MORTGAGE

Customer Service

Our aim is at all times to provide a first class standard of service. However, there may be occasions when you feel that this has not been achieved.

If you have a complaint about the products or services we provide, please contact your local branch or the Customer Support Centre Departments you have been dealing with. You can choose to contact them either by telephone, in writing, in person at the branch, or via the Contact Us section of our website.

If your complaint is still unresolved, you can contact our Customer Service Team, who will review your complaint and provide a final response. Their details are:
Customer Service Team, Britannia Building Society, Leek, Staffordshire Moorlands, ST13 5RG. Telephone 01538 391744. Lines are open 8am-6pm Monday to Friday and 9am-12noon Saturdays.

If we are unable to settle a complaint you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

More information about the complaint process is summarised in our leaflet "When Things Need Sorting Out." Please ask us if you would like a printed copy.

If you have a complaint in relation to a claims dispute, then please contact the general manager of the insurer. Please contact us for the address. Contacting the Financial Ombudsman Service will not affect your right to take legal action.

Law applicable to Contract

If you take out an account or policy with Britannia, the Contract will be governed by English Law and any dispute will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales. English Law will also govern any pre-contract relationship existing between us.

Your contract will be supplied in written English and we will always communicate with you in the English language.

Redress

Britannia Building Society is covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. You may be entitled to compensation from the scheme if we cannot meet our obligations. This depends on the type of business and circumstances of the claim. For Mortgage advising and arranging, payments are limited to a maximum of £48,000, that is 100% of the first £30,000 and 90% of the next £20,000.

Credit referencing

Information regarding you and your account may be disclosed or registered with any credit reference agencies or other appropriate organisations or institutions, including debt collection agencies. Any such information so disclosed or so registered will only be used in the making of current and future lending and credit granting decisions and in attempting to prevent fraud and to enable debtors or defaulters to be traced and pursued for any sums due to the Lender.

Insurance or credit reference agencies may keep details of any searches we make about you when we are making insurance or credit decisions. Other agency users may see these records to help them make credit decisions and assess insurance risks about you and members of your household.

Web usage

Each of the products or services featured are only available to residents of the United Kingdom (excluding the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man) and shall be governed by English Law.
We can only deal with application forms completed in English.

It is your responsibility to ensure that you have up to date details of any product or service featured. You may need to clear your cache memory.

While every care has been taken to ensure accuracy of information contained within the pages of this site, no responsibility can be taken for any errors and/or omissions.

Nothing on the pages of this site shall be deemed to constitute financial or other professional advice in any way. If any advice or guidance is required on Britannia products or services, please contact us as directed on the site.

Messages sent over the internet cannot be guaranteed to be completely secure as they are subject to possible interception or loss or possible alteration. We are not responsible for them and will not be liable to you or anyone else for any damage or otherwise in connection with any message sent by you to Britannia or by Britannia to you over the Internet.

Downloads

Please note that any software is downloaded at your own risk. Britannia Building Society does not warrant the suitability of any software which is downloaded. Whilst we have taken all reasonable precautions to ensure that no viruses are transmitted from Britannia Building Society to any third party, we accept no liability for any problems with your computer that may arise as a result of any downloads. If you are in any doubt as to the suitability of software to be downloaded for your computer, it is recommended that you obtain specialist advice before downloading.

Links to external sites

We are not responsible for the security or content of third party web sites that we link to, nor do we endorse any products or services advertised on them. Please be aware that once you leave our site, you will no longer be covered by Britannia's Privacy or Security Policies.

Britannia channels

We have a wide range of accounts and services which are available through our branch network and our website. We also offer selected products via:

The post
Our Contact Centre

Society details and regulations

Britannia Building Society, Britannia House, Leek, Staffordshire Moorlands, ST13 5RG.

Britannia Building Society is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Our Financial Services Authority registered number is 104879.

All loans are subject to status, valuation and Rules of the Society, copies of which are available on request.

We're covered by The Financial Ombudsman Service(FOS) who is available to settle certain complaints if they cannot be settled through our internal complaints procedure. Contact details are:

The Financial Ombudsman Service
South Quay Plaza
183 Marsh Wall
London E14 9SR