Ring 0345 034599 or write to: Mailing Preference Service, Freepost 22, London W1E 7EZ. This should cut down the number of unwanted faxes, though won’t eliminate faxes from organisations that don’t subscribe to the service. Ring 0345 034599 or write to: Fax Preference Service, The Publicity Centre, Hendon Road, Sunderland SR9 9XS.At the same time, consider the Telephone Preference Service if you do not want unsolicited phone calls from commercial organisations. Ring 0800 398893 or write to: Telephone Preference Service, 6 Reef House, Plantation Wharf, London SW1 3UF.And if you want to cut down on junk mail you can sign up with the Mailing Preference Service. The fax you received from the British Fax Directory was an invitation to go on its list The list contains about 80,000 numbers. But around one million fax owners have been contacted, which suggests that some 92 per cent of people feel like you and don’t want their number circulated to all and sundry.You can register your fax number with the Fax Preference Service if you do not want unsolicited faxes. I have even received a fax from the British Fax Directory, whose main function seems to be to sell my fax number to interested organisations.
Can it be stopped?ST, NorfolkThe British Fax Directory will put your fax number on its list only if you specifically give it permission to do so. You should not be charged interest or bank charges if your account is overdrawn as the result of spending money which is not yours. And you should ask for the longest payback period if a shorter period would be a financial strain. If you cannot get your bank to agree terms, try the Banking Ombudsman or, failing that, you may have to let the matter go to the courts to decide.Junk mail has long been an irritant for many people But now there is another menace It’s the junk fax.
Other, smaller errors, may go genuinely unnoticed by an account holder.But even if you do have to pay back the money, it is the bank that made the error in the first place. It follows that you should negotiate the most advantageous payback terms. But the ultimate test of your liability would be in the courts. A court would look at the particular facts of an individual case, the extent to which someone ought to have known money did not belong to them, the steps they took to correct the error and the way the bank responded In your case, pounds 10,000 was a significant sum of money. I wrote immediately to the bank pointing out that the payment was probably an error. It took three months for the bank to recognise the error and debit my account. If I had spent the money, would I have been liable to repay it?
ET, Greece
As a general rule, you probably would have to pay back money wrongly credited in this way.
Send a postcard to Steve Lodge, Personal Finance Editor, Independent on Sunday, ‘Which?’ Offer, One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 5DL. ‘Which?’ also sells TaxCalc for pounds 29.99 (pounds 24.99 for ‘Which?’ members) – call 0800 252100.q Teresa Fritz is a senior researcher at the Consumers’ Association.. I was informed by Lloyds Bank that some pounds 10,000 had been paid into my account from National Savings I was expecting just pounds 50. Whatever you decide to do about your new self-assessment tax return the advice is: don’t panic, don’t make guesses at what to put where (if you are unsure use the Revenue helplines) and, above all, don’t ignore it as there are new penalties for late returns.q ‘Which?’ publishes TaxCalc, a software program that will calculate bills and complete the tax return.
It prompts and provides tax tips where relevant and includes a help book covering all aspects of income and capital gains tax. The ‘Independent on Sunday’ has 10 free copies of TaxCalc for readers (requires IBM compatible running Windows 3.1 or higher). If you do the arithmetic the Revenue will check it and let you know if it disagrees.If you want the Revenue to do the arithmetic you have to send your return back to them by 30 September 1997. But if you want to do it yourself you do not have to send the form back till 31 January 1998.However, for this first year of self-assessment it might be easier to let the Revenue do the sums, though make sure you check its statement and shout loudly if you do not agree with its final figure. If you have savings or investment income, find any relevant statements or other records of income.Before you start filling in the form there is a decision you need to make. Under self-assessment you now have the option of calculating your tax bill yourself, or providing the Revenue with all your income details and asking it to do the arithmetic.If the Revenue does the arithmetic for you it will be based on the figures you have provided.
