History

The Birmingham Midshires (BM) has a very interesting historical story to tell as it is the compilation of over 50 building societies that have been amalgamating since 1849 including the Liverpool Building Society and the Birmingham & Bridgwater Building Society.

Other building societies include Coventry and Warwickshire Building Society, Redditch and Worcester, Wolverhampton and Mercia, Bristol Equitable Permanent Benefit, Swansea & Gower Permanent, and the Warrington Workingmens' Permanent and other building societies that all previously served relatively small communities since the 1800's.

In 1999 Birmingham Midshires became part of the Halifax Group. Now Birmingham Midshires is part of HBOS plc. Now, Birmingham Midshires has become the largest private employer in Wolverhampton, where it has it headquarters.

In September 2005, there were big changes announced as Birmingham Midshires decided to close 48 of its 67 branches and the remaining outlets would be converted to the Halifax operation. Customers were given the option of banking at their nearest Halifax branch and the 470 full and part time BM employees were offered an alternative role at the company or within the wider Halifax branch network.

Today, the Birmingham Midshires remains a separate division within Bank of Scotland plc, and offers a range of specialist mortgage and savings products. When Birmingham Midshires became part of the Group in April 1999, it had savings balances of £5.9 billion and mortgage assets of £9.2 billion. BM savings balances have doubled since then to £12 billion; mortgage assets have more than trebled to over £32 billion.

Remortgages offered through Birmingham Midshires

In order to be eligible for a remortgage with Birmingham Midshires, you will need to be an existing Birmingham Midshires mortgage holder. Additional borrowing applications will not be permitted within 6 months of completion of the original mortgage.

All products offered through Birmingham Midshires are now only available to existing Birmingham Midshires customers. If you are a new customer, then an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA) will be able to advise you of the products available to you.

You can choose to pay off your mortgage by a capital repayment method (paying off the interest and the loan) or interest only or a combination. Generally you will be able to borrow 3.25% your gross income. Birmingham Midshires offer the following types of remortgages:

Fixed Rate - 2 year fixed mortgages that are all set at a fixed rate for an agreed period. After the fixed rate has expired, the rate will revert to the Bank of England base rate plus a charge set by the society. An arrangement fee is applicable. An early repayment charge is applicable.

Flexible - the rate is a variable one set according to the Bank of England base rate plus a charge for the entire mortgage term. The repayments are flexible and you can make underpayments and take payment holidays as long as you have made previous overpayments. An arrangement fee is applicable but there is no early repayment charge.

Tracker Rate - there are 2 year, 2 year re-mortgage, Lifetime tracker, and Lifetime tracker re-mortgages. The rate is linked to the Bank of England base rate. An arrangement fee is applicable and an early repayment charge may be applicable.