I've never felt as scammed by a company as by the Direct home rewards program. Originally when we signed into our mortgage, we were told we would receive $88 per month as rewards credit as long as we used our direct account to pay the mortgage. It was easy enough to set up, so we did and it worked fine for a couple years. Then all of a sudden they changed systems. The account for the new system was a pain to make (I thought numerous times while making it that many people probably wouldn't jump through all these hoops to figure it out, and they likely managed to get out of paying a lot of people because you had to make a new account to keep receiving the rewards they originally promised.)
Also, in order to continue receiving rewards in the new system you have to either make at least 10 debit card transactions from the account each month or maintain a balance of $5000. We just use the account to pay our mortgage. We don't have any interest in making it into an extra bank account for daily purchases, which would require continually funding it to be able to make debit card purchases. We also use a credit card for almost everything to maximize cash back rewards, so we would have to forego those rewards in order to purchase things on this program's debit card... and keeping track of making sure we do at least 10 transactions a month sounds like a giant pain. So we opted to put 5k in the account, but not everyone can swing that. Also it doesn't earn interest, so over the next 26 years, I will miss out on $8862 of interest that I could have earned in my 4% interest savings account. Nonetheless, the home rewards are a higher total amount, so it's better than not doing it, but it feels very unfair, when the original discount on our mortgage was offered with no requirements like this. We signed into a 30 year contract being told one thing, and then the rules changed.
And now, to top it off, the system is broken. It worked for a few months after the changeover, and I started receiving monthly rewards again. However, for the last three months, I was unable to deposit money into the account successfully. If I can't put money in, then I can't pay the mortgage from it while maintaining a 5k balance. I was using the same bank account to transfer from that I used successfully every previous month. Nothing changed. The deposit says confirmed when I submit it, but then it never goes through. Three months ago I tried twice and neither one worked, so the mortgage came out of the 5k that was in the account. I contacted customer service. They had me do a test $5 deposit and took the confirmation number to follow it and were "looking into it", but there has been no resolution in three months (the $5 also never materialized, like the others). Consequently, I have had to pay my mortgage directly from my other account (the same one, interestingly, that direct can't manage to get money from anymore). So now I have missed out on three months of my rewards, both because my balance is under 5k (and I have no ability to replenish the funds) and because I have been forced to pay the mortgage from a different account (since I cannot fund the Direct account).
I truly think that they make things as difficult as possible to prevent having to pay people the rewards that they promised when they made our original mortgage deals. I reached out to check in, and they are "still working on it" three months later, and I'm supposed to just wait. I requested that I still receive the monthly rewards while they work on it, since the issue is on their end not mine, and of course I got no response. I can't imagine they are particularly motivated to solve the issue in a timely fashion, since doing so would require them to start paying me again. The longer they delay, the more money they save. This is ridiculous.
I am not alone. I've seen many similar reviews and a few people wondering if anyone is organizing a lawsuit. I've never been even remotely interested in something like that before, but I would be interested in jumping in on one on this if anyone is organizing one! If you are, or if you have any more information, please contact me at kathryn.m.christensen@gmail.com. read more
