The Skipton Building Society is now offering mortgage and financial advice video appointments.

The mutual has launched Skipton Link, a service which allows customers to link up via video with branches, Skipton’s head office and even home-based financial advisers.

The service is currently being run as a pilot and the results will help the society to gather customer feedback and refine the best customer journeys. Four branches have been part of the pilot, Newcastle, Skipton, Guildford, and Leeds, which has provided customers with access to mortgage and financial advice using video technology.

Over the next couple of months, 21 more branches will be added to the pilot.

This means customers can be in branch talking to a review adviser in another branch, at home talking face-to-face to a mortgage adviser at head office, or in their own home talking to a financial adviser. As part of the video appointments, Skipton can share documents on the screen, so people can see what’s being discussed and read through clearly any forms with their adviser.

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.”