We lost out on £18,000 cruise

We had booked to go on a very special cruise to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary in style. We had saved for a long time for this and were very excited about it.

Unfortunately, I suffered an untimely bout of gastric flu in the early morning just before we were due to go to bag drop. We had already checked in online. It was impossible for me to get on the plane. We had to come home, where I was ill for 10 days.

The insurer deems that we cancelled the trip and will pay only £5,000 per person on that basis.

We feel that is grossly unfair as the total cost of our holiday was £18,436. MP, SURREY

You asserted strongly to me that the fact that the trip was treated as having been cancelled rather than curtailed once embarked on meant you had lost out.

However, when I checked the policy details for this NatWest Platinum worldwide cover, it turned out that the limit for curtailment payouts was the same £5,000 per person as it was for cancellation.

Your policy simply did not encompass the full expense of your trip. I have now, I believe, convinced you that this is the case.

A NatWest spokesman says: “Our cancellation limit of £5,000 per person compares very favourably with the industry average. We also decided not to deduct the £75 per person excess.”

Always make sure the limits for every eventuality on a travel policy equate to how much you could lose out should anything untoward happen.

Many readers complain that the financial institutions that are keen to take their money are less willing to answer legitimate questions.

acknowledged receipt. Even so, since then Vodafone has been charging me nearly £12 a month for it.

Six times it has said I will get a refund in three to five days. It has done this so many times that now it says it will give me two months’ free line rental.

Vodafone still hasn’t done anything though. KC, BERKS

Further to my involvement I am assured that the £69 taken incorrectly has been refunded and three months’ line rental added by way of apology. regarding Scottish Power, which had transferred my gas account back to another provider without telling me.

Scottish Power was then supposed to reimburse me the difference between what I paid the other provider on its top tariff and what I would have paid Scottish Power at the negotiated rate.

I am still waiting and suspect this will prove to be another lost cause. PR, WEST YORKS

The energy ombudsman had also deemed that the energy firm should pay you £350 for goodwill.

However, a £1,086 credit balance linked to the outcome was still due to you.

With a prod from me, Scottish Power paid it at last.

It is now nearly two years since Scottish Power’s new computer system was brought in. Then the energy provider said it had taken on additional customer service staff and that things were getting better, with call centres opening later and more online access available.

Despite all this, complaints are still coming in to me.

of payments because of this but I never received it and so did not appeal about this unfairness. JS, LONDON

Entirely of your own volition you signed up for a correspondence course.

This had no timescale and could be done whenever it suited you, so it did not preclude you from seeking or obtaining work. Backing this up is surely the fact that once you had a job you continued with the course.

You told the Jobcentre about it, hoping to impress it with your determination to do everything possible to improve your job prospects. Instead it was highlighted as an issue and referred further up the chain. Your payments were suspended.