Capital letters

Capital letters

A 'firm offer'? Be sure to read the small print

In December, I decided to sell my Scottish Life policy to LSA Endowments. It offered me £8,549 against the £8,136 surrender value. It said this was a "firm offer" and as I could not deal with anyone else - you send the original policy document - I assumed I would get £8,549.

But then it withdrew the offer and substituted £8,090. Is this fair?GT, Monmouthshire

LSA Endowments, a traded endowment firm, justified the cut by referring you to the small print that LSA may, "at its absolute discretion withdraw its offer" if "bonus rates are changed." It argues it would otherwise have losses if rates go down - and in the currently unlikely event of bonuses rising, it would increase payments. It says this is a standard practice, but only happens very rarely.

Capital Letters argued the phrase "firm offer" referred to the amount offered and not just the fact there must be an offer at some price. And we pointed out the seller would now end up with less than the original £8,136 surrender value in December - the new Scottish Life value was £7,632.

LSA took these points on board - especially the second, referring to the loss you would have to accept. It will rewrite its contract to clarify what happens if bonus rates fall, while offering a better description of what a "firm offer" is. More importantly, it found the surrender value, when you agreed to.....continued below

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sell, was £42 higher than quoted. You will now receive an ex gratia cheque for £917 - £546 difference on your surrender value between December 2007 and the end of January, and the £371 you would have received for the policy if the bonus rates and surrender value had not changed. This is a good deal.

All I wanted was my own tax haven ...

I tried to open the much-publicised Barclays Bank Tax Haven Isa account - after Guardian Money said it was a best buy. But when I went to my local branch, the bank staff said the account was only on offer for the coming tax year. This is advertised as "an Isa account with nothing to hide," so why was I turned down?LB, London

You were told this 6.5% Isa was only available for the tax year which starts tomorrow (Sunday). Why is unclear. There would be little point advertising an account which is not yet available.

After Capital Letters called, Barclays admitted it was wrong to send you away, although it did not explain why the mistake was made. It tried to contact you, but you are out of the country. Before you went, you opened a lower rate Isa - at Skipton building society - to ensure you used this tax year's allowance. Barclays says it does not accept transfers into its Tax Haven but will make an exception, promising a special "high level process" on your return. And it will offer you £50 compensation for your time and trouble.

So who's on the sucker list, now?

I was conned by a boiler room scam from Charles Fleming, based in Tokyo, losing $25,000 in a shares investment in a Vietnam leisure company.