Your guide to building societies in the UK.

How do mortgages, savings accounts, personal loans and credit cards compare between the different building societies, banks and other financial service companies?

Are your savings rates as high as they could be?

Are your borrowing rates as low as they could be, such as your mortgage, personal loan or credit card?

So many questions! The good news is that we can give you some answers. Simply click on one of the links below in order find out the best rates currently available.

Compare Mortgages Compare Savings Accounts Compare Personal Loans Compare Credit Cards

If you are looking for the website of a particular building society then you have three options available;

You can use one of the links in the navigation on the left of this page, you can use our search facility or you can use our directory, where you'll find brief details displayed under each building society listed.

A building society is a financial institution that offers savings accounts and mortgages as its main business. In recent years a number of building societies have diversified and now offer a wide range of personal financial services.

A building society is a mutual institution. This means that most people who have a savings account, or mortgage, are members and have certain rights to vote and receive information, as well as to attend and speak at meetings. Each member has one vote, regardless of how much money they have invested or borrowed or how many accounts they may have. Each building society has a board of directors who run the society and who are responsible for setting its strategy.

Building societies are different from banks, which are companies (normally listed on the stock market) and are therefore owned by, and run for, their shareholders. Societies have no external shareholders requiring dividends and are not companies. This normally enables them to run on lower costs and offer cheaper mortgages and better rates of interest on savings than their competitors.