Capital letters: There Asda be a better way to travel than this | Mind the Gulf between promises and reality

I've received a letter from Gayle Winters, a clairvoyant who claims to have foreseen September 11, the Asian tsunami and the Chernobyl disaster. And she says I am the winner of £10,500. What do you know about her?

FA, Berkshire

She is probably a he - but whatever, this is among the sickest clairvoyant letters Capital Letters has ever seen. Its effect on the vulnerable can only be imagined. You are supposed to send £13 for the "one and only Cosmogenic Horseshoe" which can only "be given to a person chose by the superior forces and designated by Gayle." There are eight more pages of this rubbish with promise "emotional security and spiritual peace" and "to recover physical vitality".

Unsurprisingly, you are told to send your money to a maildrop in the Netherlands. And equally unsurprisingly, this garbage comes from 9 Trident Way, Southall - home of Spring TNT Global Mail, distributors of such upstanding products as Slimtox, Biotonic, Oliveal, and the European Lottery Fund, and an address that has featured here often before. Spring takes the Pontius Pilate line - it washes its hands of the contents of what it sends out.

How can I resolve the banks' Isa confusion?

I'm getting the runaround from four banks so far, which cannot help me open a mini cash Isa for this tax year. I tell them that I have already opened a maxi stocks Isa with Hargreaves Lansdown so they inform me they can do nothing. But I don't want to put new money into this Isa - just to move money away from my Alliance & Leicester cash Isa for a better rate elsewhere. How do I resolve this?

SM, Bath

You cannot have both a maxi and a mini Isa in the same tax year. But you can open a cash Isa if you want to transfer past Isas at any time, irrespective of current year Isa activity - although not all cash Isas accept transfers in. Many bank workers are confused by this - so you have to ensure they know this is a transfer rather than fresh money.

Nationwide penalises disabled boy - twice

My disabled 18-year-old son receives incapacity benefit and disability living allowance. He went £67 overdrawn at Nationwide at the end of February while waiting for his benefits. Nationwide charged £20 for this in February. And as the overdraft went into the first days of March, they charged another £20 for that month. Nationwide refuses to repay this. Please help.

KH, London

Hitting a vulnerable person once is bad enough. Taking advantage of the short month to levy another penalty is adding unnecessary pain - if the overdraft occurred at the start of March, the charge would have been £20, not £40. So the amount is purely arbitrary. And you did not even get a letter for this.

You tried dealing with Nationwide on the penalty and tried asking for an overdraft. But Nationwide did nothing.

Nationwide takes more notice when Capital Letters calls. It now understands your son's circumstances. It will write to apologise to you and to your son and refund the charges. And the society will work out an overdraft scheme to prevent this in the future.

Saga charged me for a test withdrawal

I use a Saga Visa card. Recently, my pin was rejected three times by a leading retailer. So as a test, I tried the card in a cash machine. It worked and I withdrew £10. But this transaction cost me £2 plus 16p interest. Is this fair?

AC, London

Credit card bills routinely show the costs for cash - and Visa is unable to know this withdrawal was a test rather than a need for £10.

Cards and card readers do fail - even in top retailers. The store should have offered you an alternative way of using your card such as signing for the purchase. Often, the easiest way of checking a card is to try another till at the same store or go somewhere else.

· We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Write to: Capital Letters, Money, The Guardian, 119 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3ER or email capital.letters@guardian.co.uk

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