Can we cash in travellers cheques from 11 years ago?

MY WIFE and I bought £400 worth of travellers cheques from Thomas Cook in 2006. We cashed some in 2007, 2008 and 2010, leaving us with one £100 cheque each.

Since then, we have used cash or cards, keeping our travellers cheques as an emergency standby.

In 2014, my wife had an operation and suffered health problems, which made us accept the chance of any future foreign holiday was remote.

I tried to cash our cheques at Thomas Cook, but they told me they were no longer redeemable there and I should post them to Travelex. Then Travelex directed me to American Express.

I wrote to them enclosing the cheques. We have moved house, but arranged for mail to be redirected. We also changed bank, but money sent to us should be transferred.

I wrote to the company secretary of American Express UK on December 28, but have not had a response.

C. S., Suffolk. Travellers cheques have been around since 1772 and Thomas Cook launched its own version in 1874.

They were once essential to any holiday abroad, but have fallen out of fashion as more convenient, often cheaper, alternatives, such as credit and debit cards, have become more popular.

Nevertheless, you can still buy and redeem american express travellers cheques at the Post Office. and they never expire.

an american express spokesman has apologised for the inconvenience you faced. The company has arranged for a refund of your £200 plus a £50 goodwill gesture.

anyone else who wishes to redeem old ae travellers cheques can find the most convenient place at aetclocator.com. I AM trustee to a charity, Hope To Ghana. A close friend returned to Ghana from the UK and undertakes a number of tasks for the charity.

While here he opened an account with Barclays. We put money into this and he withdraws at a cashpoint in Ghana.

But he has been struggling for nearly 18 months to get a new cashpoint card. His English is weak when faced with call centre staff.

I have his authority to speak to the bank, but when I tried to do this I was bounced all over the place.

It wants proof again of who he is and where he lives. He has twice gone to his bank in Ghana with his passport for it to write to Barclays to confirm his ID.

Barclays even gave him a £100 goodwill payment — but he can’t access it without a card!

I worked in banking for 33

years and find this treatment of a customer despicable.

M. L., by email. i can imagine your frustration. you are giving your time for a charity yet Barclays appears to be putting obstacles in your way.

it says it’s bound by legal and regulatory obligations under the ‘know your customer’ rules.

it says it wrote to your friend in Ghana in september 2015 seeking certified copies of documents that would confirm his identity.

examples include a driving licence, passport, identity card or bank statement. Barclays does not have operations there, so they need to be certified by a local bank, notary or solicitor.

Barclays says your friend provided copies of the documents in November 2016, but they were not certified. it wrote again warning the card would be blocked in December if it did not receive a reply. The block was put in place at the end of January.

Barclays is writing again requesting your friend provide the certified documents. This is time-consuming and costly, but uk regulations mean Barclays’ hands are tied. Perhaps explain to your friend the photocopies need to be certified versions. MY INSURER LV= wrote on July 28 last year claiming my vehicle had been involved in an incident two weeks previously.

Since then I have made eight calls to the company. It implied an engineer’s report indicated a mark on my car corresponded with damage to a third-party vehicle. But those marks were six years old.

At the time of the alleged incident, my vehicle was in a car park. I have written to the manager of the claims department, senior manager and managing director — the last two by registered post. I’ve not had the courtesy of a reply.

B. B., Plymouth. when you write to a managing director and no one bothers to reply, it suggests they are disorganised, rude or do not care two hoots for customer service.

lv= has now looked at your case in detail and apologises for not responding to your letters.

it has spoken to employees responsible for dealing with your complaint to ensure something like this does not happen again.

after a full review of the evidence, lv= has decided it made the wrong decision in settling the claim. it has now closed the claim and details have been removed from your records.

it has apologised to you and, after a further push from me, has offered you £50 for the poor service you received.

your letter has convinced me of one thing. if you get a bump or scratch on your car, photograph it with a copy of that day’s Daily Mail beside it, so you have evidence of when it happened if someone later comes along with a claim for a separate incident.

if you already have knocks or bumps, take pictures right now!