Money writes: Charging me a mint for unwanted coins

Money writes: Charging me a mint for unwanted coins

I ordered a coin from London Mint, but it keeps sending me more. I have pointed out the error but further coins and reminder invoices totalling £90 keep coming.

DG, Eastbourne

You were not dealing with the Royal Mint here. London Mint Office is the trade mark of Crown Collections and is a collectible-coins company owned by Samlerhuset of Norway. It says you did not buy a one-off coin but ordered the 36-coin Lord Nelson collection, which is why it kept sending them.

It admits the website failed to explain this and has changed the wording, though I still find it ambiguous. London Mint agreed to cancel your order and promised to send a courier to pick up the unwanted coins. Unfortunately, the courier went to the wrong address. Now they have been collected, London Mint will cancel the outstanding invoices.

Advertisement starts

Advertisement ends

Who covers who if the airline goes bust?

We booked flights to Zurich on Swiss airlines and were charged £3.50 each insurance to return us home 'should the airline go bankrupt' during the course of our holiday. We assumed that with Iata, Abta and Atol this situation would be covered in any case.

JH, Kidlington

Whether anyone refunds you if an airline goes bust before your holiday, or gets you home if you are stranded abroad, depends on the type of holiday you book and who you buy it from. Iata is a trade association and provides no help for travellers. Abta would compensate you if the travel agent, but not the airline, collapsed. Atol (Air Travel Organisers' Licence) provides financial protection only if the Atol-holder itself failed before it had issued tickets.

You booked flight-only through the travel agent Airline Network, which has an Atol. It was not Swiss, but Airline Network that added the premium for scheduled airline failure insurance (Safi), which protects customers if the airline fails after the ticket has been issued.

Travel policies used to include this cover, but few now do. Atol-holders can offer Safi when they accept payment in advance for tickets with an airline that has appointed them as its agent. Or they can take responsibility themselves for compensation if the airline collapses. Alternatively, they can tell customers at the time of booking that there is no protection should the airline fail. But if customers receive the ticket immediately, Atol-holders are not obliged to make any arrangement for their financial protection and the customers would not be protected if the airline collapsed. Travel agents can make buying Safi compulsory, but not as a condition for getting a special deal.

Customers who do not want to pay, usually £1 or £2 each, can go elsewhere. The consumer credit act protects those who book with a credit card, but many people do not, to avoid the credit card booking fee.

One debt company would not compromise

On graduating, I spread my large student loan over interest-free credit cards to minimise interest payments. This was a mistake as interest rates soon bit in. After struggling for several years, I contacted the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) and pay it £700 a month to distribute to my creditors. All have been accommodating apart from MBNA, which says I can afford to pay the full amount as I contribute more than expected for someone in debt.