ASK TONY: The thwarted pilgrimages left me praying for £ 1,500!

I booked two pilgrimages with Joe Walsh Tours to Medjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Padua [Padua] in Italy.

Both have been postponed from the original dates to 2021.

I made payments of £ 574 and £ 50 by check in December 2019. I paid the balance of £ 900 for the trip to Padua by bank transfer on January 31, 2020.

At the end of April, I learned from our parish organizer that Joe Walsh Tours was in liquidation.

My son filled out an online claim form with the liquidator and my daughter contacted Marks & Spencer Bank. I didn’t hear anything either.

My daughter and I have contacted M&S Bank several times since and felt we could make a complaint. Then I got a letter saying that since I was outside the 120 day limit, they wouldn’t do anything.

The £ 1,524 is a huge amount for me.

Television, Macclesfield, Cheshire.

Tony Hazell replies: Your letter – which details many failed attempts to obtain reimbursement from M&S Bank – is an object lesson about the dangers of paying by check or wire transfer.

You are essentially offering additional protections offered by using a debit or credit card.

With card payments, you can request a chargeback through your bank. This works for debit cards and also on a credit card if your purchase is less than £ 100.

For items costing over £ 100, the Consumer Credit Act is the law for credit card purchases.

You only have to pay part of your credit card for the entire purchase to be covered.

But when it comes to bank transfers and checks, you’re in the hands of the administrator or liquidator. Joe Walsh was based in the Republic of Ireland and is being treated there.

I’m surprised you don’t have travel insurance you could qualify for. You should always remove it when booking a vacation as it should cover cancellations and discounts (although read the fine print carefully in times of Covid).

However, M&S Bank (which, incidentally, no longer operates current accounts) admits that it has falsely raised your hopes.

A spokesperson said: “The customer was first informed that a dispute would be raised, when there was no chargeback right.”

He apologized and, best of all, refunded the full amount of £ 1,524 – a wonderful gesture of goodwill

Please use a debit or credit card on your next booking and purchase travel insurance.

Can we exchange apartments with our neighbor?

We want to exchange apartments with a neighbor. Ours is a two bedroom apartment on the first floor and theirs is a one bedroom apartment on the ground floor.

There is no mortgage and both parties want a direct exchange. Could you advise me please?

EW, Bromley, SE London.

Tony Hazell replies: On the surface it sounds simple, but Sarah Dwight, a Birmingham-based lawyer and a member of the Law Society’s Assignment Law and Land Committee, says: “Just because it looks simple doesn’t mean it is.

“The parties may think they can just exchange properties, but all the same legal work has to be done as if they didn’t know each other and these were two ‘stand-alone’ transactions. They will both have to appoint their own lawyer.

If the properties are leasehold, they may have different terms, such as higher ground rent revisions, or have different terms.

There will also be invoices, including stamp duty for property tax.

At one point, if both properties were of the same value, you could have made a direct trade tax-free or only had to pay on the difference. Now you will both be taxed on the total value and it has to be a realistic estimate.

From October 1 it will be zero on the first £ 125,000, then 2% on anything from £ 125,000 to £ 250,000 and 5% on the next £ 675,000.

So if your apartments were worth £ 250,000 each, you would pay £ 2,500 each. Sorry!

HSBC will not pay the mothers group reimbursement

From 1991 to 2012, I volunteered to lead a mother-baby group, one morning a week, in a local health center.

Moms paid £ 1 each for drinks and cookies.

I opened an account with HSBC on behalf of the group in September 2009.

In November 2012, we had to close the group because the clinic was being renovated.

I closed the HSBC account and split the remaining balance of £ 305.68 between regular members and assistants.

On June 15 of this year, I received a letter to the group telling me that we had to reimburse ourselves.

I sent them the Identity Verification form, along with copies of a cleaning bill and my current bank statement.

They now say they are unable to pay the refund because “the bank account you requested the refund to does not meet our payment criteria. The account holder must be the person or entity that owes the refund. ‘

MB, Welwyn Garden City, Herts.

Tony Hazell replies: Sometimes the banking bureaucracy can make me want to tear my hair out strand by strand.

Banks need to take action to prevent financial crime, but we’re talking about £ 131 and you could prove your identity.

HSBC has apologized.

He says that when a group no longer exists, they must see the appropriate legal documents or clear evidence to confirm where to pay the funds.

The money comes from incorrect charges on the community’s current accounts between July 2005 and June 2020.

I hope you and the former members and assistants of the group take advantage of your windfall.

• Write to [email protected] co.uk or Ask Tony, Money Mail, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT. Please include your phone number, address, and a note to the offending organization giving permission to speak to Tony Hazell. We regret that we cannot respond to individual letters. Please do not send original documents as we cannot take responsibility for them. No legal liability can be accepted by the Daily Mail for the answers given