Holiday payment that sank with operator

In February last year, I paid £100 deposit for a holiday in Goa with Sky Tours & Travel of West Croydon. In November, a director of the company, Amir Faruqui, asked me to pay the balance of £1,816 by cheque to GM Tours at the same address. I did this in good faith.

While waiting for a receipt, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) wrote that Sky Tours had failed. My claim on the Air Travel Organisers Licence (Atol) was refused because I paid GM Tours, which is not Atol bonded.
GS, Accrington

It is illegal for tour operators to run holidays that include air travel without an Atol, unless they are acting as agent for an airline. GM Tours had an Atol but the bond was recalled by the CAA in April 2002. It could keep trading but not offer holidays requiring an Atol. Your only option is to take the directors of GM Tours to the small claims court, although this is complicated because your contract was with Sky Tours. Croydon trading standards department says there is no proof of a legal link between Sky Tours and GM Tours and that Faruqui was a director of Sky but only a manager of GM Tours.

Holidaymakers who fail to receive tickets or an Atol receipt straightaway should cancel the cheque immediately. Preferably pay by credit card for extra protection.

Problem getting the fax right


I faxed an order for a £2,425 notebook computer using my Halifax Visa card. I needed to buy it urgently before going to Mauritius for several months but the transaction was refused. When I arrived in Mauritius, my card was declined in a local supermarket. I found a note on my Halifax online account to call the UK. I did and was told a referral had been placed on my account following the £2,425 transaction. I have heard nothing more.
A-MA, Mauritius


Halifax's fraud prevention systems alerted the retailer to question the £2,425 purchase because it was unusual for you. If you had bought the computer in a shop, the retailer would telephone your card company so you could instantly confirm that you are the rightful cardholder.

But Visa rules do not allow this when the transaction is 'card not present', when you are buying online, by fax or by telephone, because contacting you takes longer. Then, banks can only accept or decline queried, or referred, transactions.

Your file still showed a referral flag when you tried to buy groceries because Halifax had failed to contact you. The supermarket should have called Halifax's authorisation centre but instead just declined the transaction.

Halifax says it cannot guarantee this won't happen again in Mauritius but its authorisation centre is open 24 hours a day and will accept reverse charge calls from anywhere in the world.

Going write off car insurance


My car was written off in an accident. The insurer paid up and I went to the garage to collect my possessions from the car.

The mechanic drove it on to the forecourt and the engine purred like a kitten. There was plastic covering the seats as though someone had been working on it.

Is something suspicious going on?
IS, Bath


Insurers have four written-off categories, A, B, C and D. The first two are the most serious and those cars are crushed. D is when cars less than 12 months old are automatically replaced and C, most likely your category, means cars are repairable but repairs would cost more than the written-off value.

Insurers can sell category C cars to salvage agents and your garage probably bought it. You could have bought it yourself but it will be tagged as a total loss at the DVLA and on the Motor Insurance Anti-fraud and Theft Register. The registration documents will show it has been substantially repaired.

Interest that got lost in the post


Each year I send away my National Savings passbook to have interest added. This year, it got lost and I was sent a replacement. I had £2,890 in my account but the new book showed only £2,487.30. My account has been interfered with.
MS, London


National Savings has checked the passbook information and recalculated the interest to make sure there were no accounting errors but could find none. If you are still certain the balance should be higher, you need to prove that you paid more in.

Out with annuity for the old


I heard that the Chancellor was going to allow small pension funds to be taken as a cash lump sum instead of having to buy an annuity. Did this actually happen?
BH, Redruth

The Chancellor has said that pension funds worth less than £15,000 can be taken as cash, starting in April 2006.

· Email Margaret Dibben at money.writes@observer.co.uk or 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.