Money’s Gold Medallist this week is First Direct, the Leeds-based phone and internet bank owned by HSBC. It was nominated by Tiffany Topping, 43, who works for her local police force in a civilian role, and her husband, Dave, 53, a polystyrene sculptor. When the couple, who live in Rochester, Kent, and have two children aged 19 and 16, discovered to their horror that their offset mortgage was not linked to their savings account, as they had assumed, First Direct stepped in to help.
Topping told Money: “My husband and I have had an offset mortgage with it since 2009. In that time we have funnelled all our money into our savings, believing it to be the offset account linked to our mortgage.
“Despite regularly receiving offset mortgage statements, it wasn’t until we got paper current account statements sent through that my husband noticed we were earning interest on our savings — which couldn’t be right as it was offset. On looking into this, I saw First Direct had linked only our current account.
“I contacted First Direct in March to discuss this. I admitted we were partially at fault for failing to understand the statements but said that we understood our savings were linked, as evidenced by most of our money being placed in the savings account.
“I then received a letter, dated April 6, to say First Direct was dealing with my complaint and would be in touch the next month.
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“On May 23 I received another letter telling me it was going to compensate me for all the lost interest since 2009. I received a call from Adele in customer relations who said the amount would be £3,439. This has now been paid into our mortgage account.
“I was amazed that it was so painless. I would like to commend First Direct on its competent handling of my complaint. When calling, you always speak to a person — there’s no automated system — and its customer service is excellent.”