Skipton Building Society
Last Rated in Apr 2025
Skipton offers savings accounts and mortgages for individuals across a wide range of mediums (in-person banking, online or via their app). In terms of sustainability, they have initially focused on the carbon footprint of their operations and offsetting emissions via funding of a tree-planting program in the Yorkshire Dales. They are now starting to offer services and products to help customers improve the energy efficiency of their homes. Customer service seems generally good, with an excellent Trustpilot score, but some reports of issues when transferring money between accounts. They also offer an exceptionally wide range of accessibility support.
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Key Facts
Type: Building Society
Mobile Banking: Yes
Environmental Policy: Yes
Founded: 1853
Serving: Consumers
Local Branches: Yes
Products
Checking Accounts: No
Savings Accounts: Yes
Credit Cards: No
Mortgages or Loans: Yes
Business Lending: No
ISAs: Yes
Fees
Overdraft Fee: Yes
Account Maintenance Fee: No
Free ATM Network: Yes
Impact
• Skipton has an extremely detailed “Group Responsible Business Report 2022”, where they outline their plans to help customers to improve the energy efficiency of their buildings as well as detailed analysis of their carbon footprint.
• Skipton has a tree planting program in partnership with Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust. This local project reduces flood risk and improves the natural environment for the benefit of the climate, wildlife and people.
• They have social impact through matched giving with their employees, a charitable partnership with Mental Health UK, a community giving scheme for the homeless, and several community projects in the local area.
Security
• Skipton Building Society is registered with the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, so your money is insured against loss up to £85,000 in total.
• Skipton Building Society is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
• Skipton offers fraud awareness pages and a helpline (during office hours).
Service
• Customer service is via post, social media, phone and email. Their phonelines are open 8am-6pm most weekdays as well as Saturday morning.
• With a 4.4 review score on Trustpilot (out of 5), customers seem generally happy with the services offered. However, several reviews mention overly slow response time to emails and needless paperwork for withdrawing money from savings accounts.
• There is wide array of accessibility help and tools both online and in branch.
• Skipton offers a detailed complaints resolution procedure.
Accessibility
• Skipton offers online banking, where you can set up and manage your accounts.
• Accounts can also be opened by post or by phone if you prefer.
• They also have an app, which seems to work well based on the score of 4.7 / 5 on the apple store (as of April 2023). Note that not all services are available yet through the app.
• If you prefer to talk to someone face-to-face, they have 87 branches (as of April 2023) operating in England and Scotland. Most branches are open 9:30-4:30 on weekdays, plus Saturday mornings. Their website has a handy branch-finder which helps you to find the nearest branch to you.
• Skipton also offers a range of other services, such as pension planning, will execution and insurance.
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