Ecology Building Society

Ecology Building Society offers two things: savings accounts, and mortgages for sustainable housing and environmental projects across the UK. Its savings range runs from easy access accounts and notice accounts to Cash ISAs¹, and every Ecology savings account, the society says, supports sustainable housing and environmental projects¹. Its mortgages are aimed at people building, renovating or buying energy-efficient homes.

It is a small society by high street standards, and it works mainly online, through its app and by phone rather than through a branch network. Its head office is at Silsden, near Keighley in West Yorkshire. Eligible deposits are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme up to £120,000².

What Ecology Building Society offers

Ecology sells two product types: savings accounts and mortgages. On the savings side it offers easy access accounts, notice accounts and Cash ISAs, including a community savings account called the Sea Changers Impact Saver⁶. On the mortgage side it lends on self-build and renovation projects, off-site and modular construction, energy-efficient new homes, shared ownership purchases, and affordable housing schemes such as Discounted Market Sale homes⁷.

What marks it out from a mainstream bank is where the money goes. A building society takes deposits from savers and lends them out as mortgages; Ecology directs that lending at projects with an environmental purpose, such as retrofitting older homes to make them more energy efficient or funding low-carbon new builds. The society reports that it is rated "Excellent" on Trustpilot and Smart Money People⁸.

Savings accounts: notice periods and easy access

Ecology's savings range is built around three shapes: easy access accounts, where you can get at your money without waiting; notice accounts, where you tell the society in advance that you want to withdraw; and Cash ISAs. There is also the Sea Changers Impact Saver, a community savings account⁶.

The notice accounts show how this kind of account works. With the 35-Day Notice account, all withdrawals require 35 days' notice and there is no option for instant access². You can have multiple withdrawals on notice at the same time, and the notice period starts immediately if you arrange the withdrawal online or in the app; if you arrange it by post or telephone, the notice period starts from the day the society processes your request². Ecology also offers a 180-day notice account for savers who can tie their money up for longer⁹. Notice accounts generally suit money you are confident you will not need at short notice; easy access accounts, which Ecology also offers, suit money you may need to reach quickly¹.

A few mechanics are worth knowing. Interest on the 35-Day Notice account is calculated daily and paid annually on 31 December each year, and if you close the account before then the interest is credited on the day you close it². You can choose to have interest paid to the account itself or to your linked account when applying². All savings interest is paid gross, meaning no tax is deducted; any tax due is the saver's responsibility². The society states there are no hidden fees or account charges on the account, and that it may change interest rates at any time². Deposits can be made from your linked account by bank transfer, standing order, or transfer from another Ecology account². For today's rates and balance requirements, check the society's own website, as these change.

For a fuller comparison of account types, see our guide to savings accounts, and for one of Ecology's easy access products, see Ecology Single Access Saver explained.

Cash ISAs: transfers in, but only from cash

Ecology offers Cash ISAs and accepts transfers in from other Cash ISAs¹⁰. What it does not accept is transfers from Stocks and Shares ISAs or Innovative Finance ISAs, and it cannot currently accept Additional Permitted Subscriptions (the extra ISA allowance that can arise when a spouse or civil partner dies)¹⁰. If you hold money in those types of ISA and want it with Ecology, it would need to be moved into a Cash ISA first, which is a decision with its own tax and return consequences.

Transferring out works the other way round: if you want to move an Ecology Cash ISA to another provider, you contact the new provider, who arranges the transfer¹⁰. This is the standard process for ISA transfers, and it preserves the ISA's tax-free status; withdrawing the money and paying it in yourself would use up your current year's allowance. Our guide to ISAs explains the rules in more detail.

Mortgages for greener homes

Mortgages are the other half of what Ecology does, and they are where its environmental focus is most visible. Its range covers:

• Self-build: mortgages for people building their own home, including its Self-Build 65 product¹¹
• Renovation and retrofit: lending on homes being improved, including larger loans for big renovation projects⁸
• Off-site and modular construction: mortgages for homes built using modern methods of construction, where the borrower must use the society's supported supplier¹²
• Eco homes: lending on energy-efficient new homes; the society says homes built with modern methods of construction can be delivered 30 to 40% faster than traditional builds and may achieve 20 to 25% lower embodied carbon emissions¹³
• Shared ownership: mortgages for buying a share of a property, with no application fee, subject to eligibility and full assessment⁷
• Affordable local homes: mortgages for people buying a Discounted Market Sale home¹⁴

Two features run through the range. The first is C-Change, the society's reward scheme, which reduces the interest rate on qualifying mortgages according to the environmental performance of the property; the size of the reduction depends on how the property scores, and the society publishes the current terms on its website¹¹. The second is practical support for greener home improvements. On its larger renovation loans, the society offers cashback for heat pump installations, subject to conditions: the installer must be MCS accredited, the offer applies to self-build, renovation, conversion and shared ownership mortgages, and the property must have existing loft and cavity wall insulation¹⁵. Ecology has also partnered with Retrogreen to give borrowers free access to personalised energy efficiency plans and expert advice¹⁵.

If you apply for an Ecology mortgage, you can choose your own solicitor or conveyancer to carry out the conveyancing and mortgage application, but the firm you choose must be registered with LMS Panel Link¹⁶. To talk through what you want to do, the society's mortgage team can be reached on 01535 650 770¹⁷. For the wider picture, see our guides to mortgages and buying a home.

Opening an account and banking with Ecology

Ecology is an online and app-based society, with support by phone. To open a savings account online or through the Ecology app, you must be aged 18 or over, a UK resident, and opening the account in a single name². Joint account customers and under 18s must apply and manage their account by post². You can also open an account for someone else, such as a child, using the society's beneficiary account application form, and you will need to send proof of identity for the child¹⁰.

Savings accounts are linked to a bank account held elsewhere, which is where deposits come from and where interest can be paid². If you need to change your linked bank account, note that you can only do this every six months; the society confirms a change by email and text, and asks for evidence such as a marriage certificate or change of name deed if your name has changed¹⁸. The team is available Monday to Friday, except bank holidays, between 9am and 5pm¹⁰.

The 2026 change of payment details

In 2026 Ecology completed an IT transformation programme and moved to new banking infrastructure⁵. As part of that move, customers were sent details of their new sort code and account number, and payments made using the old payment information stopped reaching the society from Wednesday 15 July 2026 and were returned⁵.

Customers could find their new payment details using the society's online service or in the letter it sent in March 2026⁵. If you still pay Ecology by standing order, it is worth checking that your payments are being made to the current details.

Fraud and scams

Ecology publishes clear warnings about how it will and will not contact you. The society states: "We'll never ask for your password or PIN by text, email or on the phone"¹⁹. It also processes payments only within its opening hours, Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm, so there is no risk of money leaving your account outside those times¹⁹.

If you think you have been a victim of fraud or a scam outside opening hours, the society asks you to report it using its contact details anyway, and it will contact you as soon as possible within its opening hours¹⁹. You can also report scams to your bank immediately, and to Action Fraud. Our guide to scams and fraud explains the warning signs and what to do next.

Service and complaints: three days, five days, eight weeks

Complaints to Ecology can be made by email, by post to Ellis House, 7 Belton Road, Silsden, Keighley, BD20 0EE, or by phone on 01535 650 770²⁰. The society's published timescales are:

• It aims to resolve complaints within three working days²⁰
• Where a complaint needs looking into in more detail, it will write to you within five working days about how the complaint will be dealt with and when you can expect to hear again²⁰
• It aims to provide a final response within eight weeks of receiving the complaint²⁰

If you are unhappy with the final response, Ecology is a member of the Financial Ombudsman Service, which offers an independent review²⁰. The ombudsman is free to use and can look at complaints about savings and mortgages. Our guide to consumer protection explains your rights across financial services.

Being a member: what mutual ownership means

When you save or borrow with Ecology, you become a member of the society, and that carries rights that a bank customer does not have. Ecology is a member-owned building society, which means it is owned by the people who save and borrow with it, not by shareholders³. Building societies operate on the principle of "one member, one vote", regardless of how much money a member has with the society²¹. Members are entitled to receive a range of information, including a copy of the society's rules and memorandum on request, a copy of the annual summary financial statement sent to members before the AGM and when an account is first opened, a copy of the detailed annual report and accounts, and notice of the AGM²¹.

Mutual status also shapes behaviour. Because there are no shareholders to pay dividends, building societies often use some of their profits to support and improve the local community²². In Ecology's case that purpose is explicit: the society exists to fund sustainable housing and environmental projects¹.

How money with Ecology is protected

Eligible deposits with Ecology Building Society are protected up to a total of £120,000 by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, the UK's deposit guarantee scheme². This is the standard protection for deposits with UK banks and building societies: if the society failed, the FSCS would pay compensation to eligible depositors up to that limit, per person, per institution. Ecology appears on the Bank of England's Prudential Regulation Authority list of building societies incorporated in the UK²³, with permissions to accept deposits and enter into regulated mortgage contracts as lender⁴. Money held in a mortgage with the society works differently, as you owe the money rather than hold it, but the FSCS also has arrangements that protect borrowers if a lender fails.

One rule is worth knowing if you hold a lot of savings across building societies. When two building societies merge, the rules can give some depositors a separate, temporarily higher protection limit for their balances, and the successor society must make and retain a written record of potential claimants for whom that separate limit applies²⁴. In practice, this means a merger can briefly give you more than the usual £120,000 of cover, but only for balances that existed before the merger.

If something goes wrong short of failure, the Financial Ombudsman Service can review complaints about Ecology, and the society is a member of the scheme²⁰.

Across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Ecology's accounts and mortgages are available across the UK, and the rules that govern them, from FSCS protection to how mortgages are overseen, are the same in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Where the society sits in the wider picture differs a little from nation to nation only in the sense that building societies are spread across the whole country. There are 42 UK building societies, and they are all headquartered outside London, spread across the UK²⁵. The sector operates through approximately 1,300 branches, holding a 35% share of branches across the UK²⁶, and employs around 52,300 full and part-time staff²⁶. Ecology itself is headquartered in Silsden in West Yorkshire and serves customers by phone, online and through its app rather than through branches⁵.