Why won’t my ‘new for old’ policy pay out for a brand-new Jag?

I BOUGHT a new Jaguar for £60,000 in 2017. In May this year I was involved in an accident. The garage gave an initial estimate for repairs of £25,563, but said there were likely to be further costs which they could only calculate if they took the car apart.

My insurance policy with Saga included ‘new for old’ cover — which meant that in the event the car was written off, it would be replaced with a brand-new vehicle.

But when I tried to claim for a new car, Saga said this didn’t apply because the cost of the total repair did not exceed 60 pc of what the price of a new car of the same model would be sold for at the time, which was £59,225.

We complained, but Saga said we were entitled only to the current market value of the car, £29,410.

Saga had to use part of this to pay our outstanding finance of £24,885.40, and once the £350 excess had been deducted, this left me with £4,174.60.

How can this be fair when the full cost of repairs was never calculated because the insurer did not ask for the car to be stripped down?

M. Z., Farnham.

I AM very pleased to report that after contacting Saga on your behalf, the insurer swung into action and now says it is ‘extremely sorry’ for the error it made in assessing your repair costs.

It admits the garage made it clear there were likely to be additional costs, and these would have likely brought the final total to more than 60 pc of the list price.

So the firm has now agreed to pay you an additional £29,815, which will take the total payout up to the list price, plus £795 in interest at 8 pc.

You chose to accept a cash settlement rather than a new car, because you had already bought a new vehicle. Your policy didn’t include hire car cover, but Saga has given you a further £650 to cover the £509 you spent renting a car for a month. The remainder is compensation for inconvenience.

It is a shame it took me writing to Saga to do the right thing — but you are thrilled with the result all the same. ON MAY 26 I made an online payment to our carpenter for work done on our summer house. But we misread his bank details, typing in an eight instead of a three, and ended up transferring more than £800 to the wrong person.

We realised our mistake on the same day and immediately called our bank, First Direct.

The next morning, it started the recovery process and confirmed the money had gone into a Lloyds account at the same branch used by the carpenter.

To date, we have only received a refund for £198.64 and the banks seem unable to help retrieve the remaining £636.

W. S., by email.

YOU would like to think that if you mistakenly send money to the wrong account, the owner would pay it back. To keep it would be stealing, surely, so there must be something the banks can do. Unfortunately, this is not the case. If the recipient has spent the money, it can be very difficult to get it back.

When you notify your bank of a mistake, it has two working days to contact the receiving bank and ask it to ringfence the funds.

If all goes to plan, you should get the money back within 20 working days.

In your case, the person who received the money had spent most of it by the time Lloyds was alerted, leaving just £198.64. At one point the recipient offered to set up a repayment plan of £50 a month for the remaining £636, but has now gone quiet.

Your next option is to pursue the customer in a small claims court, and Lloyds has given your bank the customer’s name and address to enable you to do this.

Given you made a genuine mistake, this all feels very harsh, but both banks are adamant they have followed the correct procedure and it’s now over to you.

Before considering court action, I would suggest first complaining to the Financial Ombudsman. Visit financial-ombudsman.org.

uk or call 0800 023 4567.

I SWITCHED away from Extra Energy just before the power supplier collapsed and am still owed money. Had I stayed with Extra Energy I would have been transferred to ScottishPower, which would have been responsible for refunding me. I have tried calling but feel like I am going round in circles.

J. S., Staffordshire.

UNDER Ofgem’s Supplier of Last Resort process, the provider which takes over a defunct firm’s customers must cover any credit balances even if they’ve switched away — so ScottishPower is still responsible for refunding you.

ScottishPower apologises for the delay, which it blames on not having your full address on its system. Apparently, there was a missing digit from your postcode.

The good news is that a £30.46 refund has now been issued.

Anyone having problems after their energy firm went bust should first contact the provider which has taken over the customers.

If your complaint is unresolved after eight weeks, complain to the Energy Ombudsman. Call 0330 440 1624, go to ombudsmanservices.org/complain-now or write to Ombudsman Services: Energy, PO Box 966, Warrington, WA4 9DF.