Two forgeries, two banks, but only one happy outcome

I have recently been stung twice by fraudsters using forged cheques - but the way the two financial institutions involved dealt with the problem contrasted sharply. This has made it clearer than ever to me that when it comes to financial services, you get what you pay for.

The first theft was from my First Direct current account. I arrived home late one Friday evening to find a message on my answer phone asking me to contact the bank. I called, and the representative asked if I had written a cheque for £500 that week. The answer being no, the rep immediately put me through to First Direct's fraud department and I was told the name of the person to whom the cheque was made out. No, never heard of him.

The fraud rep told me the money and resulting overdraft charge would be re-instated to my account on Monday morning and that they would send me another cheque book. The last one, they assumed, had been stolen in the post. Sure enough, the £500 was back in my account on Monday, and a couple of weeks later (delayed because of the postal strike) a new cheque book arrived.

No fuss, no flap. First Direct does not offer the best interest rates but its service is excellent and includes keeping an intelligent eye on its customers' transactions. If anything unusual crops up, it contacts them to check there's no problem.

Two weeks later the monthly statement for my Capital One credit card turned up. I had recently paid off the balance and was intending to cancel the card, so was shocked to see a debit of £924 - £910 withdrawn through a credit card cheque and £14 as charges for processing the cheque and interest. I rang Capital One. The representative was polite but it was clear from the outset he had no idea how to deal with my questions. Could he tell me who the cheque was written out to? 'No, we can't give you that information.' Surely they didn't expect me to honour a cheque for £910 and then refuse to tell me who it had been paid to? 'The money was paid to a financial institution, madam.'

I asked about the signature on the cheque - did it look like mine? 'We don't actually have that information here.' So where was he? 'India.' Well, should I speak to someone in the UK who could help? 'Do you have a problem with my accent, madam?'

I assured him his English was fantastic. I just needed to speak to someone who could help me. After about five minutes I was put through to someone called Becky, who suggested I file a report with the police. This seemed a bit presumptuous, as I wasn't completely convinced I hadn't written the cheque and then stupidly forgotten it. She asked whether I had received any credit card cheques and what I did with them.

Finally I was put through to someone in the fraud department who said he would recall the cheque, but that it would take some time. I had been on the phone for about half an hour, and at the end of it felt stressed and humiliated.

One of the perks of being a financial journalist is being able to contact a press officer, and by the next day I learnt that the cheque had been made out to one Pedro Gamma, who I had never heard of.

Part of the confusion was undoubtedly caused by the fact that the Capital One representative in India had not been briefed thoroughly on how to deal with customer complaints. I took out a Capital One card because I wanted cheap credit, but as soon as a problem occurred I felt I was getting cheap service instead.

Capital One says it has an excellent record in detecting and avoiding fraud (according to the Association for Payment Clearing Services, Capital One's fraud loss per card is half the industry average) and works hard to ensure fraud cases are identified at the earliest opportunity. It has been conducting a pilot call centre scheme in India since September and few of its calls are routed there at the moment. I hope for their customers' sake they think hard about a complete switch.