I want to help my daughter buy a house after her divorce, but the bank won’t let me: SALLY SOLVES IT

A few weeks ago, our daughter told us the terrible news that she and her husband are getting divorced and have put their house up for sale.

This is devastating as our daughter earns very little and works despite having various disabilities including long COVID. We want to help fund a property for her and her daughter as their income is too low to afford a mortgage.

To do this, we need to access £20,000 held in a one-year bond we took out through the Aviva Save marketplace in June this year, but the company is refusing to give it to us. Can you please help us?

Director of Photography, Doncaster

Sally Hamilton responds: His The family has come together to help their daughter and granddaughter in this time of need. Although their daughter will receive money from the sale of the marital property, this will take time and she would not be able to secure a suitable mortgage on her own.

You and your son have decided to offer to help with £155,000 of your share and £20,000 of his share, to secure the outright purchase of a £175,000 bungalow.

Both completed “letters of donation” for their lawyer and real estate agent. These are required to confirm that people donating money for the purchase of a property do so without conditions.

Your offer for the property has been accepted but completion is at risk due to a £20,000 shortfall. This is the sum linked to your one-year GB bond which Aviva Save has told you it cannot release.

Aviva Save is an online marketplace that gives customers access to competitive savings offers from partner banks (currently seven, including GB Bank), which they can manage in one place. They can switch and open savings accounts without having to fill out an application each time.

He was happy with his one-year GB Bank bond which paid an attractive rate of 5.02%. But the agreement clearly states that customers must leave their money in for the full year. Savers in these types of accounts sacrifice flexibility in exchange for higher returns, although providers will consider early access in limited circumstances and may apply a penalty for early exit.

You thought your situation would meet those criteria. It was certainly enough to persuade NatWest, which released £40,000 that you had locked up in your one-year bond. But Aviva Save rejected your bond application.

I thought you had a strong case for Aviva Save to be more lenient, so I contacted the company on your behalf. A few days later, they responded with the decision to allow you to access your savings after all.

A spokesperson says: ‘Under normal circumstances, the terms and conditions of a fixed-term account agreement do not allow customers to terminate their contract early except in specifically defined circumstances; this is standard practice.

‘However, on this occasion, we recognise the customer’s exceptional circumstances and so have worked with the bank providing this account, who have agreed to release the customer’s funds before the contract ends, as well as waiving the £75 early release fee as a gesture of goodwill.’

You got back the full amount you invested, but no interest was added as this had to be calculated at the end of the 12-month period. The purchase of your daughter’s house can proceed.

At the end of 2019, I bought a prepaid SIM card from the Three Mobile store on Oxford Street, London, to use in the United States. Unfortunately, I was unable to activate it before my trip because it didn’t work with my phone.

It cost me £20 and although it was a shame I didn’t think much of it. However, earlier this year I found out that I had been charged monthly since 2019 via direct debit, without my consent.

The charge doesn’t appear on my statement as Three but as “H3G” which I assumed was my gym. I’ve been trying to sort this out since the end of January and have spent over 12 hours on the phone with Three customer services but to no avail. Please help.

SH, Kettering, Northants

Sally Hamilton responds: You said that as soon as you became aware that Three was carrying out the direct debit, you cancelled it and recovered the funds taken through a direct debit compensation claim. That seemed to wake Three up from its lack of communication.

After making no attempt to contact you for four years, they decided to send a letter requesting payment of an outstanding balance of £811 on your account, which included withdrawn direct debits and two unpaid bills.

You explain that you had no contract, that you never activated the SIM card and that you never received any alerts, such as price increase notices. If you had, you would have acted sooner. Most importantly, the mobile number has never been used and you have no idea what it is. You were promised an investigation. But then silence.

I asked Three to step up its efforts. It replied that its records suggest it had opened a rolling monthly contract in November 2019 and, although the phone had never been used, its terms and conditions state that customers must pay anyway.

You don’t remember signing any contract. After my intervention, Three said it had requested this from the store, but in the meantime it would cancel your outstanding balance of £807.

A Three spokesperson said: “SH had opened a monthly rolling contract and was making monthly payments to Three in accordance with this contract. As a gesture of goodwill, we have settled her outstanding balance and closed her account.” She has also agreed to amend her credit file.

Generally, taking out a mobile phone contract in a shop offers buyers fewer automatic cancellation rights than if they had bought it online or over the phone. The latter have a 14-day cooling-off period. Shoppers in-store can request cancellation within this period, but there is no guarantee that the provider will agree.

Her experience is a lesson for all of us to periodically review our bank statements so that we can promptly address any unexpected debits.