Questions of Cash: Natwest scheme, expenses claim and turning a credit into a debit

No one had told me about a broadband break fee, but TalkTalk charged me £95 for leaving

(PA)

Q. TalkTalk required me to pay £95 as a break fee in August when I moved broadband provider. But I had never entered into a contract with TalkTalk that agreed such a fee. I had been told over the phone in July that I only needed to pay the final month’s rental of £37, and this was done promptly.

Our broadband connection had been with AOL and we became customers of TalkTalk when AOL sold that part of the business. We were with AOL for many years and did not have a contract that included a break fee.

After the transfer of services, I discussed a contract with a TalkTalk representative, who agreed to send the terms and conditions by email for me to check during the “cooling off” period. But these were never provided and I never made any formal agreement.

I queried the imposition of a break fee with TalkTalk in a letter, with no reply. I did later receive a letter from TalkTalk’s customer relations department, insisting that the charge was correct as the company “did not have any evidence that [I] was not under obligation to pay such a fee”. I would have thought that legally the onus was on TalkTalk to prove there was such a contract in place.

I received a phone call in September promising that I would be sent a refund of £85.95 within 10 days – it did not come. I chased it up three weeks later, and was told the refund had been cancelled. A few days later I was contacted by TalkTalk to be told that my account was in credit balance by £85.95, which was irrelevant as I had left TalkTalk.

I sent the company a message requesting payment. Again I was promised a cheque 10 ten days, which again did not arrive.

Once more I contacted TalkTalk, once more I was promised a cheque within 10 days, once more it did not arrive. JW, Shropshire

A. TalkTalk has finally sent the payment, which you have received. A spokesman said: “We made a mistake and applied a contract break fee to [the reader’s] account when he was not in contract, and a systems fault meant his refund was not processed as promised. We apologised and sent a cheque.”

BA left an expenses claim up in the air

Q. Our son is owed £200 for expenses owed to him while working for British Airways. He sent BA the original receipts many months ago, but after receiving no money or acknowledgement, we applied to the small claims court online.

We submitted a claim against BA in September and obtained a judgment in November. He has still not been paid. What we should do next? JK, Leicestershire

A. We contacted BA, which told us it was unaware of your son’s expenses claim. We then forwarded copies of the receipts. We understand your son has now received payment.

First utility turned a credit into a debit

Q. I ceased to be a customer of First Utility in September, with the company owing me £450.43. In October it withdrew a further £59 by direct debit, without permission.

In November First Utility told me a cheque had been “raised” to repay me, but the call centre could not tell me what had happened to it. I have phoned repeatedly since then and written to the chief executive – but all to no avail. SM, Argyll

A. First Utility has now repaid the full balance owed to you. A spokeswoman said: “We needed to wait for the final closing read to come through from [the reader’s] new supplier before we could create a final invoice, which took some time in this instance. In the meantime we took another direct debit payment in error.

“Her account was closed in mid November and a final invoice was raised showing a credit was due. Subsequently we issued a cheque to cover this refund, including the additional direct debit payment.”

Point made with natwest scheme

Q. I had accumulated 9,307 “YourPoints”, worth £46.53, on my NatWest credit card. In May I received a letter saying the scheme would be discontinued and that I had until 31 October to redeem my points. I tried to order vouchers on several occasions, to be told each time there was a technical problem. When I phoned NatWest, I was told it could not find any trace of my credit card account and the points accumulated. The card expired in May.

I was told to go to my NatWest branch, which was unable to help other than to give me an address to write to. I did so and received a reply saying that any points outstanding at the time an account was closed were cancelled. But I never closed the account and I was never warned of this. GA, by email

A. NatWest will reinstate the value of your points. A spokeswoman said: “We’ve had a look into this complaint and we have agreed to apply the customer’s points, along with the bonus due, to their NatWest Gold Plus card – they now have until 31 March 2016 to redeem their YourPoints. We’ve spoken to the customer and apologised, and she is happy with this outcome.”