Skipton Building Society has become the latest lender to offer mortgage and financial advice video appointments.
The society has launched Skipton Link, a service that allows customers to connect with branches, Skipton’s head office and home-based financial advisers via a video link.
A pilot project at branches in Newcastle, Skipton, Guildford, and Leeds has proven to be successful, and the scheme is set to be rolled out to a further 21 branches in the coming months.
The video service enables customers to share documents on the screen so they can see what is being discussed and read through forms alongside their adviser.
Santander and Lloyds are among those that have already launched similar services as technology continues to transform the mortgage application process.
Andrew Bottomley, Skipton’s distribution and financial services director, said: “Skipton has become one of the few providers on the UK high street to offer this digital facility.
"To be able to offer mortgage and financial advice video appointments is a rarity – and we’re delighted to begin rolling this out for more and more of our members.
“Buying a house can be a stressful time for people. And prior to Skipton Link, we couldn’t offer face to face mortgage appointments in our branches. This video service means we now can, and it’s a fantastic new way for people to either pop in or have an appointment in the comfort of their own home.
“It enables us to connect more of our customers to our mortgage and financial advice experts in the way that is most convenient for them.”
Daniel Bailey, principal at Derbyshire-based Middleton Finance, said: “I can see why Skipton are doing it. People have a limited amount of time and often have to take time off work to go into branches, and if they are a married couple with children it is very hard to do.”
But he added that a recent client of his had been unhappy with the video link process and preferred to speak to someone face to face.
Mr Bailey said: “My client did not like speaking to someone they had not met and still had to take all the documents into a branch. They wanted to speak to someone face to face who was local.
“As a profession, we have to embrace technology. Some individual brokers do Skype as well. We have to try and offer as many different options as we can.”
simon.allin@ft.com
