The Financial Services Compensation Scheme

A warning for anyone with an off-set mortgage, try calling your mortgage provider and asking them whether your "pot" is safe, should the bank fail. The reply will be along the lines that "deposits will be set off against the amount of the loan" and that there is nothing to worry about. Then ask them to put this in writing and see what happens; the letter you receive may not be quite as definite.

Then contact the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and ask them for a definitive commitment that your money is safe. After talking to them you may feel that an off-set mortgage is rather riskier than you thought. After all, statements that "no major UK bank has ever gone under" are not as reassuring today as they were a year ago.