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My stocks were switched to the wrong company, leaving me confused and out of pocket
Last year my solicitor sent my share certificate and application to switch my Eurotunnel shares to Groupe Eurotunnel SA (Getsa) following Eurotunnel's share offer. In April, I discovered that my shares had instead been transferred to TNU (formerly Eurotunnel).
Computershare, which handled the transfer, says it is now too late to transfer the shares to Getsa. Its staff told me it would be pointless pursuing the matter further as whoever I contacted would only refer me back to the complaints department, so I would simply go around in circles.
I have lost the free warrants that would have doubled my holding, am no longer eligible for travel privileges, which was my main reason for buying the shares, and now hold TNU shares worth 9 cents instead of Getsa shares at €4.90.
SG, Bury St Edmunds
Margaret: Your solicitor posted your forms applying for Getsa shares a month before the deadline but Computershare says it didn't receive the share certificate and, without that, could not legally transfer your Eurotunnel units to Getsa. It claims to have sent you a warning letter in May 2007 but you did not receive it. I have not been able to establish what happened to your share certificate.
One Computershare person told you it might have been lost by temporary staff that Computershare employed but the company denies using temporary staff. Several other employees said subsequently that you could still transfer your shares to Getsa but unfortunately they were wrong. Also wrong was the Eurotunnel person who told you in April that you were on the TNU share register. Computershare has discovered that your Eurotunnel shares had not in fact been transferred to TNU. It has now done this, waiving the £10 fee, after you signed an indemnity form. It confirms that you still have your travel privileges through TNU, although Computershare cannot speculate what might happen to them in future.
You can't use these at the moment, though, because, following the Channel Tunnel fire in September, TNU's website says travel privileges have been suspended on new bookings apart from a one-off 30 per cent discount on trips taken before 15 January.
Around the houses for more than 80 days
I had to cancel a Voyages Jules Verne holiday on medical grounds and submitted a claim to Europ Assistance on 3 June. Over the next three months, I have tried to contact them by phone, only to get a recorded message, and by email but get only a standard reply. I bought the insurance from VJV but they can't help.
RP, Chartridge, Bucks
Margaret: Europ Assistance says it had sent you a letter asking for more information about your claim and was still waiting for your reply. You didn't receive this and Europ Assistance didn't chase you. Now you have emailed the extra details required and Europ Assistance has agreed to pay your claim in full: £386.
Why can't I transfer the balance on my store card?
I have held a Harvey Nichols store card for four years. The August statement included a cautionary note that my card would no longer be accepted from September. The call centre explained that the card was about to be run by GE Money instead of HSBC. I would have to reapply in store if I wanted to continue using the card.
I did, after checking that my balance could be transferred to the new card. I have been waiting a month for a new card and now GE says I cannot transfer the balance. I called HSBC to start clearing the debt but HSBC said it couldn't talk to me because it no longer had a contract with Harvey Nichols. It also said it could not take payments by telephone, only by cheque or in an HSBC branch.
BF, Brighton
Margaret: Harvey Nichols is just the name on the store card so, even though you are the same person shopping in the same store, you had to apply for a new card because it was being administered by a different bank. Your debt stays with the original bank and HSBC apologises for misleading you.
You applied to GE on 9 September and told them on 15 October that you had not received a new card. It checked that the new card had not been used and in early November sent a replacement, unfortunately with a much lower credit limit. GE has signed an agreement, not yet implemented, to sell its card business to Spanish bank Santander. GE says cardholders will not be affected by the changeover this time.
I paid too much in insurance
In March 2006, I took out a car loan with NatWest and paid £143 a month. At the time, they persuaded me to take out a 'loan guard' policy at a further £21.70 a month, in case my circumstances changed and I was no longer able to continue to make my repayments. In August 2007, I repaid the loan in full and cancelled the £143 direct debit. I totally forgot I was also paying an extra £21.70 a month for insurance. A year later, I realised I had paid 11 premiums to insure a loan I no longer had. NatWest said I had taken the insurance for 60 months, the original term of the loan, and the direct debit continued unless I cancelled it. The bank will not refund any premiums.
PG, Maunby, Thirsk
Margaret: NatWest claims you did not cancel your loan until last November. It agrees you repaid the debt in August but says you did not actually tell the bank you were cancelling the loan then and could have started borrowing again. It does accept you did not need insurance after cancelling and offered to refund the premiums paid after November, £173.60.
It might seem churlish to reject that gesture, but I asked NatWest why it thought you had cancelled the loan in November. You had cancelled the direct debit three months earlier, quite reasonably assuming that the bank would realise you no longer wanted the loan. But you made no more contact with the bank until August this year. The bank could not explain why it thought you had cancelled the loan in November 2007 and has now agreed to refund all the insurance premiums from the time you repaid the loan, £238.70.
• Email Margaret Dibben at money.writes@observer.co.uk or write to Margaret Dibben, Money Writes, The Observer, 3-7 Herbal Hill, London EC1R 5EJ 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.
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