Unwanted loan led to window pains

In May 1999 we paid Anglian Windows £5,050 for double glazing but, when we told the sales consultant we wanted to pay cash, she offered a £520 discount if we took out a loan through Associates Capital Corporation.

She calculated that the £520 would take care of the interest and advised us to take insurance for £550. As there seemed hardly any difference in the two ways of paying, we did as she advised.

In January we asked to pay off the balance, which came to £3,224, some £1,700 more than we expected. We were told we had a 10-year loan. We contacted the showroom manager and, when nothing happened, the deputy director of customer services. We are still in absolute darkness.
JV, London

This is the second complaint within a few weeks to Money Writes about Anglian Windows' credit agreements, and it has rattled Anglian. The company says any sales consultant found to have deliberately misled customers over credit will be sacked immediately.

It says it wants to improve communications with customers and, prompted by Observer readers' complaints, is rushing out a leaflet explaining to customers how credit agreements work and what they cost.

Anglian has agreed to refund the extra costs you incurred by taking credit so you will pay the cash price - as you wanted to do in the first place.

Home insurance: Empty threat

Last November my father went into hospital and then moved into a residential home. We need to sell his flat, but sorting everything out takes time. We cannot even begin until my father has definitely settled into the home.

His house contents insurance is due for renewal, but Endsleigh is refusing to renew the policy because there is now no one living in the flat.
SS, Langley

Endsleigh says it has a standard clause about property unoccupied for more than 30 days and, concentrating as it does on younger customers, has not come across this situation before.

But it is backtracking and has agreed to renew. It admits handling your inquiry badly and, although you were given a technically correct response, says local staff should have taken advice from head office.

Endsleigh says it is now standard practice to renew in these circumstances at the standard rate, though it insists you turn off the gas, drain the water system and remove valuables.

You should always tell insurers when a house is empty this long, regardless of the renewal date.

Pension share: My missing wife

I Started an annuity with Standard Life in 1995. I noticed when I took up the pension that provision had been made for a half pension to be paid to my spouse after my death.

I am 70, divorced many years ago and see little prospect of remarrying. Does this extension of pension rights to a non-existent spouse have any impact on the amount of pension I receive?
TW, Bath

If you bought this annuity with a company pension fund, you probably had no choice about taking the widow's pension.

But that provision certainly does reduce the amount you now receive. If you bought the widow's benefit on a financial adviser's recommendation, you should complain to the person who sold you the policy.

Remortgaging: I'm paying more

I am alarmed at the increase in my mortgage payments since I remortgaged with Bradford & Bingley.

Last year they went up from £156 a month to £176.90 and this year they have risen another 32 per cent to £233.90.
GM, Blackpool

Bradford & Bingley changes its monthly mortgage payments once a year. After the £156 figure was set, interest rates rose twice, in February and March 2000, so for the rest of the year you paid less than you owed.

In April 2000, mortgage interest tax relief (Miras) was abolished, pushing your payments up by another £19, which you started to make up only from 2001.

On top of that, the interest rate applying in January 2001 is higher than the 2000 figure so you are now paying a higher mortgage rate as well as making up last year's under-payments.

Since the new year your mortgage rate has already fallen by 0.25 per cent and another reduction is likely. If you wish, you can ask Bradford & Bingley to recalculate this year's payment now to take account of the lower rate.

• 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.

Airport tax

Money writes readers are clued up about
reclaiming Air Passenger Duty when they have
been unable to use tickets, sometimes with
success. Airlines forward the duty to the
Government only when passengers actually fly.

WW of Chislehurst says: 'I had two tickets with
Buzz for travel from Stansted to Dusseldorf. I
asked for a refund of the taxes and almost by
return received ?21.25 per ticket.'

JF of Wakefield received ?20 back from a Ryanair
flight to Cork but its other customers have been
less fortunate. IG of London booked one flight
with Ryanair to St Etienne but had to cancel
because she could not get a hire car: 'I rebooked
for a week later, only to miss the flight because of
delays at the airport. I had already applied for a
refund of taxes and charges for the first booking
and was refunded ?30.80 for two people. I applied
for a refund of the second booking, only to be told
that Ryanair would now only refund the UK
Government tax of ?10 per person but that was
cancelled out by a ?10 per person administration
fee.'

She adds: 'I have been battling to get proof of
when the refund administration fee was
introduced. They claim it was 17 November, the
day before my second flight.'

One reader, who gives no name or address,
believes airlines should keep the duty: 'It is
obviously a problem of high taxation and we
would all be better served if you spent your
energy on protesting about the tax rather than
about the airlines that have made travel possible
for the masses.'