I bumped into another car and now fear I’m the victim of a scam

WE APPEAL to you as honest pensioners who attempted to alert LV= about a suspected scam from an incident involving my car and a Mercedes-Benz.

Parked between two cars, on manoeuvring out of the tight space, my car touched the Mercedes with little impact.

The person came out of his car shouting, swearing and accusing me of damaging the car. I felt traumatised and vulnerable.

The police inspected both cars and observed there was ‘no visual damage’ to either. An ambulance summoned by the other driver was also cancelled.

The police officer gave me a Road Traffic Collision note to say no further police action would be taken. An LV= assessor found no evidence of a bump or crash on my car.

So we were very upset and traumatised to be contacted by LV= in March, claiming I’d not informed them about an accident involving this Mercedes which LV= had had to pay out for.

My car insurance has increased substantially due to this scam claim. We can’t afford the increased premium because of this slur on my file.

Mrs M.A., Liverpool.

There are two strands to this case. The first is the incident and the second your application for car insurance.

I fully understand your reaction to the event, given the number of crashforcash claims. however, LV= does feel this accident was genuine.

The other driver made a claim for damage to the vehicle which was checked by engineers from LV= and confirmed to be consistent with their account. It also received an independent medical report stating the third party had received injuries. Given the evidence, the claim was paid.

Now, on to the second part. Instead of renewing the car insurance directly, you went online and purchased a new LV= policy and you did not declare the accident, which happened in august.

When the insurer checked its records and discovered you had not declared it, it asked for an additional premium of £120.16. You then cancelled the policy and were charged a fee. LV= has reexamined your case, but concludes that it has acted fairly, and I tend to agree.

however, after looking at your circumstances, LV= has refunded the cancellation fee.

MY SON has severe learning difficulties, so my wife operated a joint Halifax savings account with him. It currently holds about £4,000.

This worked well, but in January she passed away.

I went into the local Halifax branch with the grant of probate and asked to replace my wife as the signatory. They said this wasn’t possible and they had frozen the account.

They said they would only release the account when I produced a Court of Protection letter. Power of attorney is not possible, as my son has a pre-existing condition.

I spoke to my solicitor, who said this would cost about £2,000 and about £200 per year to provide annual accounts. Sledgehammer and nut come to mind.

It appears I have two options. The first is to spend half of my son’s money in the hope that the Court of Protection letter will resolve the issue, while the second is to forget the £4,000 and hope the Halifax enjoy the money and the interest accruing.

D.P., Luton. These situations can be extraordinarily difficult because halifax has to protect itself from accusations that it has mishandled your son’s account. The information you were given was correct and it would be halifax’s normal policy to insist that the Court of Protection become involved.

however, it has now reviewed your case based on information I have provided regarding the loss of your wife and your son’s disability. halifax accepts that you are in a very difficult position and that to have to spend £2,000 to get £4,000 is disproportionate.

On the basis of your individual circumstances, it has reviewed the case and will go outside its normal policy because it feels this is the right thing to do for you. so you will now be added to your son’s halifax Guaranteed saver account.

Well done to halifax for taking the common sense approach here.

MY WIFE and I each took out a personal loan with Barclays for £1,000 in 1988. I later became ill and had to have two emergency heart operations followed by a lengthy convalescence.

Barclays allowed me to pay £5 per month until my health improved. Unfortunately, I was never able to return to work and was forced to retire.

I now have a small disability pension and with a lot of juggling have been able to increase payments to £15 a month on each loan. However, I’ve been shocked to find I still owe more than £7,000.

I heard there is a new scheme where people with long-standing loans for more than £5,000 can get 75 pc of the loan written off. Do you know of this or is there any other suggestion you could make to help me overcome this crisis?

R.B., Surrey.

I Was astonished to see that £2,000 worth of loans could grow to more than £ 7,000, so asked Barclays for a full explanation.

In fact, you borrowed rather more than you said in your letter, though this may have been an oversight on your part in an attempt at brevity.

It seems your wife took out a loan for £1,000 on august 26, 1998, and

a further £9,000 the following day. The balance of this was frozen at £9,438 on December 6, 1999, when the debts were referred to the recoveries team.

No further interest was charged; a payment agreement was reached. Your wife’s current balance is £6,209.

You took a loan on august 27, 1998, for £ 1,000, followed by a further two loans.

These were also passed to the recoveries team on December 6, 1999, when the balance had reached £10,783.76.

The current amount owing is £7,095.

The scheme you are referring to is an Individual Voluntary arrangement where, if all creditors agree to it, after five years the remaining balance may be written off.

That may well be 75 pc of the original debt.

Barclays’s financial assistance team is contacting you and may ask you to fill in an incomeandexpenditure form, so they can assess your financial status or offer debt counselling if necessary.

I suggest you also take independent debt advice from charity stepChange at stepchange.org or on 0800 138 1111.