A stampede of savers has joined Bradford's Yorkshire Building Society which now has 4,000 people a week clamouring to open new accounts.

In the last six weeks the building society has added thousands of new savers to its ranks - pushing its total membership up from 1.2 million to 1.3 million.

The stampede started during March when hundreds of people discovered that the Yorkshire was offering good rates for Tessas, which were being phased out, and Individual Savings Accounts which were coming in.

The surge in savers joining the building society is expected to grow even further when the Bradford & Bingley converts into a bank and its interest rates for savers come down.

The firm, which is headed by chief executive David Anderson, announced that it had seen a doubling of its savers from between 800 to 1,000 a week to 2,000 at its annual meeting in early April.

But now that figure has doubled again at a time when saving is on an even keel nationally.

David Holmes, a spokesman for the Yorkshire, said today: "It just hasn't stopped. We normally see a run on savers when we announce new products - but that just lasts a few days.

"This time we have announced new products and have six accounts in the Best Buy tables and people have kept on joining us at a rate of knots," he added.

The firm also expects to get even more members when the Bradford & Bingley converts to a bank next year and pulls its interest rates down for savers.

"We always get more custom when building societies convert to banks and the same will happen when the B&B converts next year," he added.

The Yorkshire puts some of the stampede down to its marketing of a series of savings schemes since it reduced the number of accounts it offered from around 50 to 11 - giving it a chance to offer higher interest rates.

The top six accounts are its Tessa Privilege, Notice Saver, Access Saver, Monthly Saver, Happy Kids and Postal Saver.

Pam O'Keefe, of the Building Societies Association, said today: "This is a good sign for the Yorkshire and a good sign for building societies because people who join the Yorkshire and some other building societies know that they are signing away windfall benefits to charities if they save with them."

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