What will someone give me for an old fiver?

BW writes: I have an elderly friend who has discovered four old £5 notes and a 10 shilling (50p) note of the sort I remember. She also has another 10 shilling note and another £5 note that are slightly different. Can she easily exchange these for valid currency notes or is there anywhere that might be interested in them as collectables?

All old notes can be exchanged for their face value at the Bank of England. You’ll need to complete a form (at bankofengland.co.uk or from 020 7601 4878) and either send them by registered post, or go in person to the Bank in Threadneedle Street, London EC2R 8AH. If you have damaged notes, incidentally, you need to deal with the bank’s branch office in Leeds (0113 244 1711). Old coins are dealt with by the Royal Mint.

Whether your friend’s old notes are worth anything more depends entirely on exactly which notes they are, and their condition. According to Barnaby Faull, Spink’s director of banknotes, the old blue £5 notes with the Queen’s head, issued from 1956 onwards, are generally worth no more than face value. Those predating them - black and white notes, which have the date of issue on them, could be worth £100 or more if they are in good condition. Ten shilling notes with the Queen’s head on them could be worth £1 each, and those without the Queen’s head but with Britannia might be worth £3. Spink will value any old notes for free - send them registered post to 69 Southampton Row, London WC1B 4ET - but it is unlikely to make an offer for just one or two such notes unless they are exceptional. You could perhaps try some smaller firms or local antiques shops that might be interested in single notes.

Npower’s threats don’t scare me

CC writes: I received a “final demand” from Npower last week, with lots of threats. This was the first inkling I had that I owed it anything. This morning I received another “final reminder”. I have always paid in full. I have just changed supplier to British Gas so I presume all this is to “teach me a lesson”. As I am 80, Npower’s threats don’t worry me much. I don’t need credit anyway.

I applaud your robust attitude to corporate threats, and envy your evident immunity to credit crunches. It was no more than a mistake on Npower’s part: there was a closing bill for £39.31 which was never sent, and Npower is writing it off as a goodwill gesture.

Post Office does the right thing

PS writes: Last November I took out car insurance for my father (who was ill) with Post Office Insurance. I discovered that two sums had been taken from my account, both for £154 (though the number of pence differed), one by Post Office Ltd and the other by Post Office Insurance. I wrote to Post Office Insurance at the end of November, but it refused to accept liability. I tried the Financial Services Ombudsman, which said I had to go through the firm’s complaints procedure and give it eight weeks to resolve the matter. I made my complaint in January, but other than receiving a reference number, have made no progress.

As the eight weeks have passed, you would have been entitled to get FOS to take the matter up directly, but given its backlog of cases, this would probably have taken months - and as a widow juggling your own (modest) finances, two teenage children to look after and a father who is now seriously ill, such delay seemed to me unconscionable.

My contact at Royal Mail was quick to respond, saying: “We should have sorted this out much sooner.” You now have the refund as well as £50 in gift vouchers as an apology. He has given his direct phone number - such a sensible move in a big organisation where one has to rely on someone else doing what they have promised, and one I would like to see more press officers do.

Red faces at the share club

RM writes: We are a share club syndicate which has been going since 2000 and which for the last few years has been run for us by Barclays Stockbrokers. A while ago, the firm realised it did not have all our details on file, so we had to provide them, which we did. Barclays suddenly froze our account with more than £20,000 of stocks and £6,000 cash. We are at a loss as to what to do next.

One of your members should have his ears burning and cheeks flaming with embarrassment, because it seems that - despite being contacted twice - he failed to provide the requisite documentation to Barclays as required under the money laundering regulations. He can thank the Data Protection Act that neither you (nor I) will ever know who he is. However, following further prompting he has now done so and your share club account is up and running again.

Abbey just won’t send statements

HT writes: Last August we moved house and since then have had almost insuperable problems trying to get monthly statements for our Abbey current account.

I have paraphrased your letter quite dramatically, leaving out the many toings and froings you have had with the bank. You have other accounts there, and with all of these your notification of your change of address worked perfectly. Having been bogged down in Abbey’s complaints system for a good six months, receiving regular missives stating it would take a further four weeks to investigate (but still no statements), you turned to Question of Money.

While I have yet to hear from the bank myself, Abbey did sort this out quickly: within a week of my contacting it, you told me you had received the backlog of statements together with a “nice” letter of apology and a cheque for £150.

Gold at the end of the rainbow

RE writes: Help! In 1983 I purchased 15 gold sovereigns from IC Commodities, which were held on my behalf in Jersey. In 2004 I wrote to cash in the sovereigns but received no response. I have spent hours on letters and calls trying to trace them, and am getting desperate.

Fortunately, your letter gave me details of the names of the directors of IC Commodities, which meant that the problem was solved almost immediately. One of them, Anthony Yadgaroff, I knew of, though my brain refused to come up with the name of his current firm. A quick visit to Google resolved that, and within 24 hours of my contacting him at the Allenbridge Group in London, all was sorted. The firm agreed to sell the sovereigns on your behalf, waiving any storage or insurance fees, and just under £2,000 was sent directly to your bank account. You were impressed with the professionalism of the firm which, in turn, was very pleased to reunite you with your investment; it had been trying for some time to locate the handful of clients whose sovereigns it still held.

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