Kingdom Bank

Kingdom Bank is a small, specialist UK bank with two main lines of business: mortgages for churches and for people working in Christian ministry, and savings accounts, including fixed-rate cash ISAs, for ordinary savers. Its Home Mortgage is designed for ministry workers, missionaries and those working in Christian organisations, and the bank says it assesses each application personally rather than relying solely on standard income models¹. On the savings side it offers fixed-rate cash ISAs with terms of one and two years, alongside other savings accounts.

Kingdom Bank is a UK bank known for a particular specialism: lending to churches and Christian ministries. In 2025 it provided 124 new mortgages, lending £28.4m for Christian ministry, and reported customer satisfaction of 9/10¹. Alongside this lending it offers savings accounts, including easy access and notice accounts, and fixed-rate cash ISAs, so savers' deposits help fund its work¹. Eligible deposits are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) up to £120,000 per person³.

What Kingdom Bank offers

Kingdom Bank's business is built around Christian ministry. Its lending is aimed at churches and at individuals whose work and income patterns do not always fit the standard models used by high street lenders: the bank describes its Home Mortgage as designed for ministry workers, missionaries and those working in Christian organisations, and says it assesses each application personally¹. The mortgage covers both full ownership and shared ownership purchases¹.

The scale is small compared with a high street bank. The provider states it provided 124 new mortgages in 2025 and gave £28.4m in mortgages for Christian ministry in that year¹. Alongside lending, the bank takes deposits from savers, and its personal savings range includes fixed-rate cash ISAs: a One Year Fixed-Rate ISA², a Two Year Fixed-Rate ISA⁶ and a Two Year Fixed Higher Rate ISA³. Savings with Kingdom Bank work like savings anywhere else: you pay money in, it earns interest, and the terms of each account set out when you can get it back. For the general picture, see our guides to savings accounts and ISAs.

Kingdom Bank mortgages: fixed, discounted and variable

Kingdom Bank's Home Mortgage comes in rate types that behave differently, and the difference matters most when a promotional period ends. The bank offers a 2-Year Fixed Rate option, where the rate is fixed for two years¹, and a Discounted Variable Rate option, where a discount applies to the bank's Standard Variable rate for a three-year term, after which the mortgage reverts to the Standard Variable rate¹.

A fixed rate gives certainty: your payments stay the same for the fixed period whatever happens to the bank's own rate. A discounted variable rate is different. The discount is a reduction from the Standard Variable rate, not a rate of its own, so if the Standard Variable rate moves, your rate moves with it, keeping the discount. When the three-year discount term ends, you pay the full Standard Variable rate, which will usually be higher than the discounted rate you started on. The general mechanics of how fixed and variable mortgages behave are covered in our mortgages guide.

As the timeline shows, the discounted period carries an early repayment charge: three months' interest if you move to another lender during the first three years. That is the trade-off for the discounted rate. If you expect to move lender or repay early within the discount term, the charge needs to be weighed against the saving the discount gives you. Once the discount term ends and the mortgage reverts to the Standard Variable rate, you are free to look at remortgaging elsewhere without that charge, though a new lender would apply its own terms.

Mortgage fees: what the borrower pays

Kingdom Bank charges an arrangement fee of £600 on its Home Mortgage¹. That is at the lower end of the market: independent guidance puts typical mortgage arrangement fees at between £500 and £1,500⁸, and notes that it is common for lenders to charge around £1,000, while some lenders with low rates charge fees of up to £3,999⁹. An arrangement fee is paid for setting up the mortgage, and lenders usually let you pay it upfront or add it to the loan, though adding it means paying interest on it.

Beyond the arrangement fee, the borrower pays the other costs of the purchase. The lender instructs the valuer for a basic mortgage valuation, but the borrower generally pays for it as part of the mortgage application¹⁰. Independent guidance notes that many lenders offer free valuations as part of their deals, and where a fee is charged, some lenders charge a flat fee, for example £100, while others use a sliding scale based on the property's value; a valuation should not cost more than a few hundred pounds¹¹. A basic valuation is for the lender's benefit, to confirm the property is worth roughly what you are paying, and is not a survey of its condition.

Legal work is also paid for by you, using a solicitor or conveyancer of your choosing, and the cost sits alongside the mortgage fees rather than within them. Independent cost breakdowns of buying a home typically include around £1,000 for mortgage fees and around £150 for a mortgage valuation fee alongside legal costs⁸. Before applying, ask Kingdom Bank for the full list of charges that apply to the deal you are offered, including when each is payable and whether any are refundable if the purchase does not go ahead. Our home buying guide sets out the costs of a purchase step by step.

The One Year Fixed-Rate ISA: fixed term, interest and deposits

The One Year Fixed-Rate ISA locks your savings away for twelve months². Interest is calculated daily and paid annually, and the rate is fixed for the term². Because the rate is fixed, it will not change during the term: the bank states that while the rates offered for new accounts may change from time to time, your fixed rate remains until the product matures². That is the main appeal of a fixed-rate ISA over a variable one: you know what the account will pay, and a fall in market rates during the term will not reduce your return.

Deposits can be added at any time via online banking, standing order or post², and the account can be funded by bank transfer, standing order or card payment². Because it is an ISA, interest is free of income tax. Kingdom Bank states that you can open and hold multiple ISAs in the same tax year², so holding this ISA does not prevent you from paying into another provider's ISA in the same tax year, though the overall ISA allowance applies across all of them. The rules around ISAs generally, including the allowance and how transfers work, are covered in our ISAs guide.

The bank also offers a Two Year Fixed-Rate ISA⁶ and a Two Year Fixed Higher Rate ISA³, which work on the same principles over a longer term: interest calculated daily and paid annually, fixed for the term, with deposits added at any time via online banking, standing order or post⁶. On the two-year accounts, the bank contacts you after 24 months to explain your options and explore your next steps⁶. Which term suits you depends on how long you can do without the money, covered in the next section.

No withdrawals during the fixed term

The rule that defines these accounts is simple: no withdrawals are permitted during the fixed term². That applies to the One Year Fixed-Rate ISA and to the Two Year Fixed-Rate ISA alike⁶. You are committing the money for the full term, so only save into these accounts sums you will not need before maturity.

There is a narrow exception. The bank states that no charges apply to the account, except for those referred to in its terms and conditions, where it permits early withdrawal at its discretion, with charges on a transfer before the maturity date². In other words, an early exit is not a right: it is something the bank may allow, and if it does, charges can apply. Anyone who thinks they may need the money early should check the terms and conditions and ask the bank directly before opening the account.

One further consequence is worth knowing. Any money you move to an account that is not an ISA will lose its tax-free status². So if you withdraw at maturity and put the money in an ordinary savings account, the interest it earns from that point is taxable income in the normal way. Keeping the money within an ISA, by transferring it to another ISA, preserves the tax-free treatment. If access to your money matters more than the fixed rate, a notice account or easy access account elsewhere in the savings market may fit better, at the cost of a rate that can change.

Who can open a Kingdom Bank account

For the One Year Fixed-Rate ISA, the eligibility rules are: you must be aged 18 or over, a UK resident, and have a National Insurance number². The same conditions apply to the bank's other fixed-rate ISA terms⁶. These are the standard conditions for opening an adult savings account in the UK: proof of identity including your full name, date of birth and address is normally required when you apply¹², and applications can usually be completed online, in person or by phone¹³.

Kingdom Bank does not offer a full current account range in the way a high street bank does, so if you are looking for day-to-day banking, our current accounts guide covers the wider market. If you cannot get a standard account elsewhere, the basic bank account system exists for exactly that situation: banks and building societies must offer basic bank accounts to customers who are legally resident in the United Kingdom who do not have a bank account or are not eligible for a standard current account¹⁴. If you are turned down for an account and not told why, or you feel you were turned down unfairly, you may be able to complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service¹⁵.

For the mortgage side, eligibility is assessed individually. The bank says it assesses each application personally rather than relying solely on standard income models¹, which is aimed at people whose income from ministry work does not fit the patterns high street lenders' systems expect. As with any mortgage, the lender must lend responsibly, and if a lender does not uphold or even acknowledge a complaint about affordability, you can escalate it to the Financial Ombudsman Service¹⁶.

How to open an account and pay money in

Opening a savings account or ISA with Kingdom Bank follows the standard process: complete an application form, and provide proof of identity, including your full name, date of birth and address¹². Applications can usually be made online, in person or by phone¹³. Because the bank is a specialist operator rather than a branch network, check its website, www.kingdom.bank⁴, for the current application routes for the account you want.

Once the account is open, paying money in is straightforward. Deposits can be added at any time via online banking, standing order or post², and the account accepts funding by bank transfer, standing order or card payment². A standing order is useful if you want to build the balance steadily from a current account each month; a card payment or bank transfer suits one-off deposits. MoneyHelper has guidance on how payments between accounts work, including joint accounts where more than one person manages the money¹⁷.

If you are moving an existing ISA to Kingdom Bank, or moving a Kingdom Bank ISA elsewhere, use an ISA transfer rather than withdrawing the money, so the tax-free status is preserved. Remember the rule from the previous section: any money you move to an account that is not an ISA loses its tax-free status². Before opening, confirm with the bank the minimum deposit for the account you want, and the date interest starts on money you pay in.

Complaints: eight weeks for a final response

If something goes wrong, the first step is to raise it with the bank directly, by phone, letter or email. The standard process for a bank complaint has three stages: complain to the bank's customer services, then make a formal complaint, giving the bank eight weeks to investigate and provide a final response, and then, if you are still unhappy, take it to the free Financial Ombudsman Service¹⁷. Kingdom Bank works to the same pattern: acknowledgement of letters and emails within five business days, an update after four weeks if the complaint is not resolved, and a final written response within eight weeks.

The Financial Ombudsman Service is free and independent. Its guidance sets out the process: a complaint goes first to the company involved; if the company does not send a final response within eight weeks, or the customer is unhappy with its response, the complaint can then be taken to the ombudsman using its complaint form¹⁹. The ombudsman can look at the outcome of the complaint and, where it upholds it, can require the firm to put things right. The ombudsman can also look into complaints about the bank or payment service provider that received money, considering the steps taken to recover it and whether it should have had concerns about its customer's account¹⁹.

As a measure of service, the provider states a customer satisfaction score of 9 out of 10 in 2025¹. That is the bank's own reported figure rather than an independent survey, but complaints data and the ombudsman's decisions are public, and the escalation route above is open to you regardless of how satisfied other customers report being.

Spotting and reporting scams that use Kingdom Bank's name

Any bank's name can be used by fraudsters. People may contact you pretending to be a bank or utility company²⁰, and scammers often impersonate trusted organisations such as banks, HMRC and broadband providers to get your information²¹. A message claiming to be from Kingdom Bank asking you to move money, confirm passcodes or click a link should be treated with suspicion: a genuine bank will not ask you to move money to a "safe account" or ask for full security details.

The advice if you think you have been scammed is consistent across official sources. Contact your bank immediately, using the number on the back of your card or on a recent statement²², and report it to the police at reportfraud.police.uk or on 0300 123 2040²⁰. You can also reach your bank by calling the centralised number 159²³. In Scotland, scams can be reported to Report Fraud or to Police Scotland by calling 101²⁴. Acting quickly matters: banks may be able to stop or recall a payment if told soon enough. Our scams and fraud guide covers the main types in detail, and consumer protection explains your rights afterwards.

How your savings are protected: FSCS cover up to £120,000

Money you hold with Kingdom Bank is protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. The bank states that all eligible deposits are protected by the FSCS up to £120,000 per person³. The FSCS is the UK's statutory compensation scheme: if a bank fails and cannot return deposits, the scheme pays eligible depositors up to that limit, normally within a short period.

The £120,000 limit applies per person, per bank. Kingdom Bank is a bank in its own right, so the limit applies to money held with Kingdom Bank separately from money held with other banks, each of which has its own limit. If more than £120,000 is held with the bank across accounts, only the first £120,000 is covered. Deposits in joint accounts count towards each holder's own limit, and MoneyHelper explains how joint accounts are treated for protection purposes¹⁷.

Two things to keep in mind. First, protection covers eligible deposits, not the value of investments, and it applies to eligible depositors as defined in the FSCS rules. Second, the protection depends on the bank remaining on the Bank of England's list of UK banks authorised to accept deposits, where Kingdom Bank appears²⁵. If a bank were to fail, the FSCS process, and the ombudsman's role in complaints about it, are set out in our consumer protection guide.