Cook's tour over interest free credit

I bought a Tricity Bendix cooker from Currys in April last year under an interest-free credit agreement with GE Capital. I had problems with the cooker and was still not convinced it was working by the time payment was due the following October. I contacted GE Capital and Currys in November but neither would help.

I sent a cheque in May but without the interest that GE Capital is trying to charge. It says I should have told them there was a problem with the cooker before the end of the interest-free credit period and provided supporting material from Currys.
BE, Camrose

GE Capital now admits you did all you could and it was wrong to say you had a duty to report the faulty cooker.

Currys should have passed on this information. GE reckons to work closely with retailers to keep communication seamless and insists procedures implemented in June prevent a breakdown happening today. It regards your experience as a 'regrettable lapse' in customer service. It has agreed not to charge you any interest and to waive any other costs you suffered such as the charge for an arrears letter.

Currys is sending you a gift voucher for £50 as a gesture of goodwill, which is useful only if you want to buy a small electrical item from their stores.

Banking on a holiday

I deposited cash at my local Halifax cash machine on the advice of a cashier 'to save queuing at the counter'. I was surprised to read on the receipt that the money would not be available for a cash withdrawal until the third working day.

Halifax explained that the envelope has to be opened and checked and they need to allow for bank holidays. This left me more bemused than angry but it is hardly plausible that they have many more bank holidays in Sheffield that we have in Lincoln.
SD, Lincoln

Blaming bank holidays is ridiculous because the time is measured in working days.

Halifax says that when paying in cash over the counter, you can withdraw against it the following day but if you make a deposit through a cash machine on a Monday, you cannot withdraw any money till Thursday.

It takes Halifax this long to check that you really did put as much in the envelope as you said and the cashier should have pointed out this drawback to you in the first place.

Fact finding the hard way

Eight years ago I returned to teaching and went to top up my pension.

Teachers Assurance persuaded me that my money would be better invested with them than with the Prudential, even though the Pru offered reduced costs to teachers. I was told it was a good idea that 'your employer doesn't know how much you have in pension entitlement'. When I complained, I was told that the adviser had not breached any guidelines.
ST, Norwich

Establishing exactly what has been said at interviews is impossible so, when investigating complaints, companies rely on the fact find, a formal record of your meeting. A salesman can deny saying anything not written on the fact find although, when you signed it, you would not realise the importance of what is missed out.

A salesman should find it difficult to justify recommending a free-standing AVC rather than the teachers' own AVC scheme or buying added years.

But according to your fact find you said you planned to take early retirement. Teachers Assurance says it rejected your complaint because, at that time, teachers' own schemes had to be taken with the main pension whereas a free-standing AVC could be activated separately if you left before age 60.

This overlooks that you could retire early if the local authority agreed. Teachers Assurance, which has nothing to do with the Teachers' Pension Scheme, can re-investigate your complaint. It would now be handled under the Financial Service Authority FSAVC Review guidelines.

Franc exchange cost dear

We have a flexible mortgage with Standard Life Bank and wished to speedily arrange a further equity drawdown to buy a house in France.

We returned the acceptance form by guaranteed next-day delivery but, when I telephoned, was told it had not arrived. After I confirmed that the Post Office had delivered the letter, I was told that the internal post arrangement had 'missed out' our correspondence. The money had to be converted to French francs and, because of this delay, we lost more than £200 on the exchange rate.
KH, Canterbury

In fact there was no delay. Although Standard Life denied receiving your letter, it had arrived and was being processed. But the person handling it failed to note its progress on the central computer log so the one you spoke to could find no trace. The bank has now tightened its procedure to ensure this does not happen in future.

When you asked about the drawdown procedure on 7 September, Standard Life said it would take five to 10 working days from receiving the application. This arrived on 12 September, the bank needed 24 hours for security checks and£74,990 was paid to your account the following day, faster than usual. Whenever you transfer money to a different currency, you face a foreign exchange risk.

Health at heart of cover refusal

Before buying holiday insurance I telephoned Travel Insurance Association, which is part of CGU, and declared my pre-existing medical condition: coronary artery bypass surgery in June 1992. I was asked for a medical report by my own GP and this stated that I was fit enough to travel.

Even so, Travel Insurance would not cover any future heart problem. Surely they could have told me so in the beginning instead of going through a medical check-up with associated costs?
AS, Greenford

CGU (now called Norwich Union) agrees that, before you had the medical exam, it could have explained more clearly that it was likely to refuse you insurance against heart problems, even if your doctor said you were fit enough to travel.

But, says Norwich Union, nobody is automatically refused. It depends on the type of operation, when it took place, your age and condition. It was your type of operation that led to the exclusion.

• Write to Margaret Dibben, Money Writes, The Observer, 119 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3ER and include a telephone number. Do not enclose SAEs or original documents. Letters are selected for publication and we cannot give personal replies. The newspaper accepts no legal responsibility for advice.