On the other hand, while I welcome this re-introduction, charges are likely to be introduced on these smallish withdrawals and there is the possibility of the ATM’s running out of cash faster than usual. I, however, like the idea of the small-change dispenser – ever dashed in a hurry to withdraw some cash to pay for your bus ticket on a Monday morning only to get a £50.00 note pop out…? and then there’s the look on the face of the bus driver…

These bonuses and fixed-rate deals are running out, leaving savers with poor returns. New rules introduced last month demand banks and building societies warn you before your bonus runs out. Any bonus which ran out before the start of May would have been exempt from these rules. Last week Egg, now part of Citibank, launched another version of its Internet Saver Issue 2 paying 2.24pc (2.8pc), including a 1.84 (2.3) percentage point bonus payable for a year. The offer is open only to savers bringing new money to the bank. Existing customers cannot move their account here. But if you are in its older Egg Savings Account (Internet) you will see much less interest. Savers who have been in this account for more than a year earn a much lower 1pc (1.25pc).

Savers in the Halifax Guaranteed Saver Reward version on sale until July last year will see their rate drop from 1.6pc (2pc) to 0.4pc (0.5pc) once they have been in the account for 12 months. The account offered a fixed rate for a year, after which you earn its Guaranteed Saver rate, currently 0.4pc (0.5pc). And if you bought the attractive version launched in July last year, your rate will be cut from 2.08pc (2.6pc) to 0.4pc (0.5pc) next month, bringing your interest down from £208 to just £40 a year on £10,000.

If you were tempted by Halifax’s tax-free Isa Direct Reward – on sale until May 29 last year – your rate will drop to 0.5pc from 3pc once you have been in the account for a year. You’ll also see your rate plummet to 0.4pc (0.5pc) on Santander’s (the old Abbey) eSaver 2, launched last May, once your 1.6 (2) point bonus runs out after a year. It’s not as bad as the 0.08pc (0.1pc) that savers in the original Abbey eSaver earn, but well below the best deals on internet accounts.

One of the most common practices is hunting down an insurance policy issued by a company that seems to have vanished. Many of these are so-called ‘penny policies’ taken out years ago with an insurer or a friendly society for a small monthly premium, often collected door-to-door. Insurers stopped collecting premiums on these years ago because of the cost, but they still have a value. Don’t expect more than a few pounds, though…if you locate your policy that is.

Many old insurance policies were issued by friendly societies, often with a name reflecting the occupation or beliefs of the people the policies were sold to. At the end of World War II, there were more than 1,000 of these member-owned institutions: today, there are just 40. Both the FSA and Policy Detective should carry details, or try the Association of Financial Mutuals. For example, the Domestic Servants Insurance Society now comes under Reliance Mutual.

Shares Certificates: First, check if the company is still trading under the name on your shares – a look at the share price page in newspapers should help with bigger companies.If you can’t find the company, then it might have been renamed, taken over or disappeared. Companies House can help and has drop-in centres in London, edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast. If you haven’t received any communication from the company for a while, you may need to update your details with its registrar. You can find this out from the London Stock exchange website if you select the Tools & Services option and then company profile.

If you think you own shares in a company ( i.e. an electronics company) but have lost the certificate, then you need to find out who the registrar is. Be prepared to pay for a replacement certificate.

The Premium Bond prize draw has been taking place for 53 years and prizes are always claimable, regardless of time. The oldest unclaimed Premium Bond prize – £25 in today’s money – dates back to the November 1957 draw. There is more than £30 million in unclaimed prize money: there are two prizes for £100,000 dating back to the same draw in Febuary 2007. One is on a £25 bond bought by a lady with a last known address in Outer London, number is 8LK522839; the other is also held by a lady, last known address in Australia, with just a £ 6 holding ( number 5eT395766). Premium bonds can always be cashed in at their face value: you can get a repayment form from a post office or from its website.

Now go get your detectives hat on and find those missing pounds!

Although Lloyds said predictions of a return to the black were based on current expectations for the economy and regulatory burdens, the bank is ‘pleased’ with its performance so far. The bank, which has three million small shareholders, reported ’strong’ trading in the first 10 weeks of 2010 and has clamped down on costs after the HBOS merger. In February’s annual results, it increased annual cost saving targets to £2 billion by the end of next year as a result of the takeover. Bad debts in the second half of 2009 were around 20% lower than in the first six months of last year and Lloyds had previously guided a similar rate of improvement during 2010.

But the bank’s impairment charges are falling at a faster rate than expected, improving profitability. The unexpected update will be a boost for chief executive Eric Daniels, who has defended the HBOS deal for more than a year to former Lloyds TSB shareholders who have seen dividends cut and the Government step in as a result of the takeover.

Bosses hope the new line will filter out their customers who do not have the money to buy the bank’s products so their British staff will potentially be able to sell to every caller. Barclays is testing the system and call centre staff have been briefed that it will start on April 1. I have already closed my Barclays account due to the way they treat smaller account holders – I despise speaking to foreign call centre operators who read to you from a script, cannot answer even the most basic questions and have no geographical knowledge of the people they are talking to. I refuse to deal with them at all.

These days with the recession, the priority for many couples will be sorting out debts and other joint liabilities, such as household bills. Many people do not realise that with joint loans, overdrafts or credit cards, both parties are liable for the full amount. This is known as “joint and several liability”. It means that if, for example, you have a £10,000 loan with your ex-partner, you will not owe £5,000 each — you will both owe the full amount.

Joint and several liability can also apply to rent or mortgage arrears, as well as council tax, utility and other household bills. It is, therefore, important to ensure that your name is removed from all bills before moving out of the property. An old partner’s finances may also have an impact on your credit rating. If a couple share any form of joint bank account or credit, such as a loan, this “financial connection” will appear on both party’s credit ratings.

If your partner or ex-partner has a bad credit rating and you have a financial connection with them, this will have an adverse effect on your rating as well. This is why it is very important to keep your finances totally separate for at least six years from when your partner had debt problems — since it takes that long for their record to become clean again. Once you have severed all financial connections from your partner, you can write to a credit-reference agency — Experian, Call Credit or Equifax — to “dissociate” yourself from your ex. The agency will share this disassociation with the others, so only one needs to be contacted.

Also remember that your ex-partner will have access to any savings and current accounts in joint names. So it is vital to ensure these assets are divided fairly at the outset of a separation.

A fifth of parents admit they have dipped into their child’s savings account to make ends meet, a survey showed today. Around 22 per cent of parents said they had been forced to raid their child’s savings, with 44 per cent borrowing between £200 and £500, according to savings provider Engage Mutual Assurance. Four out of 10 parents said they were forced to use their child’s savings to pay bills, while 20 per cent faced unexpected car repairs.

Around 14 per cent used the money to pay for a family holiday, 12 per cent needed it to cover the cost of house repairs and 8 per cent put the money towards the cost of Christmas. Two-thirds of parents said they only borrowed money from their children when there was no alternative, and 13 per cent said they did not know where else they could get the money from quickly. Eight out of 10 parents who borrowed money said they saw it as a loan and would pay it back when they could.

But 30 per cent of parents admitted they felt guilty about borrowing money from their children and 27 per cent said they felt sad that their financial situation had become so dire. But look at it this way – you enable your kids to save, you provide them with the funds to do so – so what is the problem with taking back some of that which you gave them…?

Now thousands who hoped to have their meagre monthly incomes boosted by the deal, are having their cheques returned. At the last count more than 1,000 a day were being posted back. Many more applications are still to be received from savers who never realised the rates had been withdrawn. They will now be forced to seek out one of the lesser deals from elsewhere on the high street – the Post Office is doing a one year growth bond at 3.70% fixed for one year and a 4.25% rate for the two year deal.

This will be a further blow to those whose incomes have been devastated by the fall in the Bank of England base rate to a record low of 0.5 per cent. In some cases investors are getting just £8 interest a year for £10,000 of savings. If you do not need to depend on an income from your savings for the time being it would also do to look at investing in gold, shares or otherwise.

Many left because they were seriously fed up with the banks actions and performance over the past 18 months – so much so that many accountholders simply closed their accounts and went elsewhere. Of course the faults at Nationwide can not be laid at the door of the dedicated staff in the local branches. Instead it must be aimed squarely at those responsible – the directors who have chosen a course of action that has outraged its core membership.

In particular, Nationwide’s savers feel abandoned. Why, they want to know, did the society persist in slashing its mortgage rates at the turn of the year at the expense of savers? there was no need to remove the 2.75 per cent floor on its tracker-rate, yet it bowed to Government pressure to cut rates, rather than protecting the savers who make up the vast majority of its membership.

In my personal experience it was the smaller things that got to me; putting a stop to processing withdrawal transactions over the counter that were less than £30. I was told to use the machine outside – in the pouring rain on this particular day – because other customers had complained that small transactions kept them waiting…

So I packed up and left. It seems many of you did the same thing. It is the only way to make the directors sit up and take notice!

For many years people, including students and pensioners have been hit with these charges often running to more than £100 after going only a few pence overdrawn. I myself have been a victim of this form of daylight robbery. The Office of Fair Trading is now expected to win the right to rule that these charges were too high in the original test case that is now being considered by the Supreme Court.