Questions Of Cash: Why can't the bank bend the rules and be more generous?

Q. I obtained an interest-free loan from the Bank of Scotland in 1997 for the value of 25 per cent of my home, in return for which, on sale, the bank gets the loan repaid plus 75 per cent of the increased value of the home. On current values, I would get £142,500 on sale and the bank would get £207,500 - leaving the bank with a 10-fold return on the loan in nine years. I feel Bank of Scotland should share part of this gain with me, but it is refusing to do this. BW, Crowborough.

A. Bank of Scotland is sitting pretty on a potentially very handsome return on its investment, but it is not about to hand back any of its portion and the bank argues this is acceptable practice.

A spokesman says, "Shared Appreciation Mortgages were offered by Bank of Scotland between November 1996 and February 1998. Prior to any loan being drawn we strongly recommended that potential applicants sought independent financial advice to ensure the SAM scheme was suitable for their individual circumstances and that they were fully aware of the obligations they were undertaking. The terms and conditions agreed at the time the mortgage was arranged still stand."

Q. I have a second home in the Irish Republic. On the basis of an offer of cheaper phone and internet services I transferred my accounts from Eircom to Perlico. But Perlico has continued to recharge me €25.61 (£18) a month since last March for the Eircom.net internet service that was supposed to have been replaced as part of the Perlico contract.

Every time I complain to Perlico it says it cannot do anything until I get a cancellation number from Eircom.net. Eircom says this can only be resolved by its Eircom.net division.

Eircom.net doesn't have an advertised phone number that can be dialled from the UK. When I e-mailed Eircom.net it didn't reply for over a month, then it only confirmed the service had been cancelled and didn't provide a cancellation number. It hasn't replied to repeated e-mails requesting the cancellation number. And Perlico hasn't replied to repeated e-mails asking it to accept Eircom.net's e-mail as proof of service cancellation. AJ, Belfast.

A. Perlico says that this is a common problem with transfers of customers from Eircom.net to itself. It says it is also unable to obtain a cancellation number, but has agreed to credit your account next month with the €256 (£180) rental overcharged.

Q. I joined Virgin Wines' online WineBank scheme, paying £20 a month into my WineBank account. Virgin promised to pay me £20 for every third payment.

By July I had £40 "interest" on top of my payment of £100. But when I selected a case of wine, the screen message advised that some wines were not eligible for spending the "interest".

There is no such explanation in the conditions other than to say that buy-one get-one-free offers might be exempt. I had to spend £70 from my contributions. I queried this without response and eventually requested my account closure and refund. LM, by e-mail.

A. Rowan Gormley, the founder of Virgin Wines, says: "At no point do we prevent WineBank customers from taking advantage of special offers. The WineBank is designed so that customers can get a special offer on all our products, rather than just the products that we choose to put on special offer."

He says what is not permitted is combined use of promotional offers that would cause Virgin Wines to lose money. Gormley argues this is clear in the terms and conditions. He apologises for the failure of Virgin Wines to respond to your phone calls and e-mails.

Questions of Cash cannot give individual advice. Please do not send original documents. Write to: Questions of Cash, The Independent, 191 Marsh Wall, London E14 9RS; cash@independent.co.uk.