I WAS surprised by your recent advice that anyone who used a credit card to pay over £100 as a deposit to the troubled furniture company Courts could reclaim the money from the card company.
I am in a similar situation with a TV shopping channel called Auctionworld, but my bank has told me that a recent legal case means your advice is incorrect, and that in any event the law governing refunds never did apply to me because I have the wrong type of card.
A.L., West Kirby
FOR the past 30 years, credit card companies have been jointly liable alongside retailers if goods are faulty or, as with Courts and Auctionworld, if the retailer collapses. If you used a credit card to pay between £100 and £30,000, the card company must repay you.
There was a recent court case, but the banks which opposed refund claims lost. The Office of Fair Trading, which represented shoppers, won a ruling that the existing refund rules must apply to all UK deals, though not to purchases made abroad. Since Auctionworld is a British company based in Hertfordshire, my advice was right and your bank is wrong.
Of course, all this assumes that you did use a credit card. If you used a debit card - the kind which takes the money from your account as soon you use it - then this is the "wrong" type of card. The protection of the consumer credit laws will not help, I am afraid.
ISAS and Tessas are exempt from income tax, but are they also exempt from inheritance tax?
C.J.K., Liverpool
BOTH these investments sidestep income tax and capital gains tax, but the tax benefits end there.
When you die, any cash or shares held in Isas or Tessas count as part of your estate for inheritance tax purposes. In addition, the exemptions end on your death, so your personal representatives have to pay tax on any income or gains arising after the date on which you die.
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