H S writes: Can you unravel the mysteries of my Isa transfer from Alliance & Leicester to Halifax (HBOS)? Nearly four months after it was initially arranged, nothing has happened and all attempts by HBOS and myself to get information from A&L have been futile.

Problems with Isa transfers have formed an increasing part of the Question of Money postbag in recent weeks, but yours is mysterious indeed — and an insight into what a chaotic business Isa transfers can sometimes be.

A&L reports, somewhat red-faced, that your Isa was closed on the day your request was made, with a cheque made out to Halifax and posted off, with the transfer form, to . . . Bank of Iceland.

“I’m unable to give any reasonable explanation, other than human error,” said a spokeswoman. Once this error came to light six weeks later, A&L quickly reopened your Isa, added back-dated interest, and closed it again the following day, sending off the new cheque and transfer form to Halifax. For some reason (unknown) both were returned to A&L, which opened your Isa one more time, backdating interest again. There, for the moment, it remains; A&L has now written to you asking whether you still wish to transfer to Halifax. It is also offering £75 compensation.

Phone bill is a long time in the post

M C writes: My 85-year-old sister transferred from BT to Post Office Home Phone late last year. Since then she has received no bills and the Post Office has taken no money from the direct debit she set up. She has limited means but always meets her obligations promptly. She is extremely worried that when the bill arrives it will be huge. She has written once and made three telephone requests for a bill without success.

Post Office Home Phone has been suffering a big computer glitch, which has prevented it sending out bills, and a number of customers have been affected. The firm has promised it will not bill people for more than three months’ back line rental and more than six months’ call charges. It promised a bill would be sent to your sister a week or so after your contacting me.

Centenarian hopes for Abbey ending

R T writes: My mother-in- law is a sprightly 100-year- old who still manages her financial affairs with a little help. Last year she exchanged a maturing Abbey Savings Bond for a replacement bond suggested by Abbey in its maturity letter. The necessary forms were completed with instructions for interest payments to be made to her Abbey bank account as previously, and form R85 (to allow payments to be made gross rather than net of income tax) was enclosed. However, no interest payments were received. We complained, and £327 of backdated interest was sent to her bank account. A few months later, the monthly interest payment was again missed, and in the following two months payments were made, but income tax was deducted. She wrote to the person who had handled her original complaint and then to the chief executive but received no reply to either. Then she received her annual investment statement, showing tax had been deducted from the backdated interest as well.

Six months on from when your mother-in-law first started writing to Abbey, and following this column’s intervention, it looks as if we are almost there. In total, £142.66 of tax had been incorrectly deducted from interest payments, which normally she would have had to reclaim directly from Revenue & Customs (more form filling; more delays). However, Abbey has agreed, as a gesture of goodwill, to pay up itself, crediting her current account. It says it has noted her status as a non-taxpayer, so fingers crossed this should not happen again. The missing monthly interest payment was, it seems, credited directly into the bond, rather than sent to her bank account, and once this last problem is resolved, your mother-in-law may (just) achieve her ambition to “get it all sorted by my 101st birthday”.

Nothing happened in Bond adventure

M C writes: Can you help with a rather annoying marathon with Abbey? I applied for an eBond at my local branch last year for £27,000, using £11,000 that was already in my Abbey branch saver account and paying a further £16,000 by cheque into that account, to be transferred. When, six weeks later, I had received no acknowledgement I returned to the branch to be told there was no trace of my application and, in any event, it would not have been valid as the eBond required “new” money. I could quite easily have written a cheque for the full £27,000 had I known.

A month after that, your application form was returned — date stamped a few days earlier — so it had evidently been found. You were then told the account could not be opened as it was no longer available. The bank eventually offered you £30, which you felt was poor recompense and you asked me to help.

By now, winter had turned to spring; and spring to early summer. At last, a response from Abbey arrived: an offer of £30. This, I pointed out to the bank none too gently, was where I had come in. Since then, to be fair, a flurry of activity by Abbey has led to a much more reasonable offer of £100 in addition to the £30. This more than compensates you for the difference in interest rates between the branch saver account (where your cash has been sitting ever since your original application) and the eBond, on the full £27,000.

Account numbers recycling chaos

S B writes: I have had a big problem with my Barclays savings account for the past three weeks. I have found out it has been £7,000 overdrawn because the bank has used my account number for someone else, who has been writing cheques. I am constantly receiving debt letters and getting nowhere with the staff when I call. Please, can you help?

It must have been unnerving to see money disappearing from your account, and Barclays’ habit of recycling account numbers is, as you have realised, to blame. The bank says the previous person who had your account number closed the account in June 2003 and you opened yours 18 months later, in December 2004. I don’t know whether the individual concerned was simply using an old cheque- book by mistake or whether it was a more deliberate act.

As your savings account had only a very modest balance when this problem started, all the rogue cheques were returned unpaid, so you weren’t actually £7,000 overdrawn, but you did get hefty bank charges slapped on each time this happened, plus nasty letters.

Barclays has now ensured that no more cheques issued in any other name than yours will be returned unpaid, and that all previous sums and charges wrongly deducted will be restored to your account. It has also checked that nothing adverse about you has been reported to the credit-reference agencies. The bank is sending you some wine as an apology and is recommending you close this account and open another (with a different number) to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

There are two obvious questions arising from this:

1. Why were the cheques “returned unpaid” to your account, when your name is not the one on the cheques? Answer: because most cheques below a certain limit are processed automatically.

2. Why does Barclays recycle its account numbers?

Answer: because it has so many accounts, Barclays says.

Other banks seem to manage without problems, so I’m unconvinced.

E-mail Diana Wright at questionofmoney@sunday-times.co.uk (no attachments please) or write to A Question of Money, The Sunday Times, 1 Pennington Street, London E98 1ST, giving a daytime telephone number. We cannot send personal replies or deal with every letter. Please do not send original documents or SAEs. Advice is offered without legal responsibility.