Why we changed mortgage lender

Graeme Brown and Nick Shelton of Leeds have a flexible mortgage with the Yorkshire Building Society, paying the society's standard variable rate of 6.25 %. Until April this year they were customers of the Bradford & Bingley, a mutual prior to its stock market flotation last December.

Graeme, a 43-year-old lecturer in media and theatre, explains why he was keen to move his mortgage. "I was with the Bradford & Bingley for about seven years and Nick [Shelton] had been with them a lot longer. Last year we voted for it to stay mutual but even after they decided to convert we were happy to stay with them. It was not until we got a statement from them at the start of the year, after they had demutualised, that we started to think about moving the mortgage.

"The repayments had rocketed. We had been paying ?360 a month, but we were now being asked to pay ?480. That's an increase of 33%."

Graeme shopped around for a new deal. A friend recommended the Yorkshire and Graeme was impressed by the society's flexible mortgage deal, and by its attitude to mutuality.

He explains: "They told me they had just changed the voting rules so that if it went to a vote, instead of needing 51% of borrowers in favour, there had to be at least 75%. They are now less likely to demutualise, which is a very positive fact.

"I have been very impressed with the service from the start. Perhaps I should have gone back to the Bradford & Bingley and said 'I've got this offer, can you match it?' but by that time we were so fed up with them that we just wanted to move."

Although Graeme says he would not instantly jump ship in the seemingly unlikely event of the Yorkshire Building Society becoming a bank, he is a strong supporter of building societies. He says: "I think that, ethically, mutuals are a much better proposition than publically listed companies (PLCs)."