Question: I have had several problems with Barclays this year, after more than 20 years of faultless banking. This summer I used my Co-operative Bank credit card for the first time for some months.

I had a direct debit set up to automatically pay the minimum amount. Unknown to me, this had expired. Barclays refused to make the payment for two months in a row and failed to tell me. I was charged two months' non-payment by the Co-op until I spoke to them and they lifted the charges.

The Co-op told me to speak to Barclays about the problem. Barclays told me the Co-op had cancelled the direct debit the day before the payment was due to be processed. I spoke to the Co-op again, who said this was untrue and they didn't have the authority to do this anyway.

The Co-op has agreed to explain the situation to the credit reference agency if Barclays will provide a note of explanation - which they promised to provide, but have not done so. NS

Answer: Your experience should be a warning to all occasional users of credit cards. Banks must comply with a "dormancy" rule. Any direct debit not used for a period of 13 months - either from the date of a lodgement, or from the date of last payment - is made dormant and removed.

This is for customers' security, reducing the risk of fraud or error. In your case, the direct debit mandate was made dormant because it had not been used for 22 months. Barclays says the responsibility for notifying a card user that a direct debit has gone dormant lies with the originating bank, not the payer's bank.

A spokesman for Barclays says: "All direct-debiting companies are aware of this rule and of the need to set up a new mandate if required.

"After a mandate has expired and been removed, should the company claim payments, these will be automatically returned as 'no instruction held'."

We have asked The Co-operative Bank to ensure that there is no remaining adverse entry on your credit report.

Question: In June my aunt was to transfer £500 via internet banking to my Santander current account. I mistakenly got two digits wrong when reading out my account number from my cheque book.

Two days later I realised the account had not been credited and the reason for this. My aunt inquired and was told the transfer had already been processed and it was too late to recall.

When I spoke to my branch manager I was told that even though they knew whose account had been wrongly credited, the bank was not prepared to contact the account holder either to request a refund, or even to explain what had happened. I cannot believe that banks are not required to cross-reference the account number with the account holder's name when processing transfers. SS

Answer: Banks no longer check account numbers against the names of account holders when processing electronic payments. If it goes through wrongly, you may lose the funds. However Santander has taken pity on you. A spokeswoman says: "Due to the circumstances, we have agreed to make a goodwill payment of £500. We urge customers to use care when transferring funds online and stress that there was no Santander error in this case."

Question: The Co-operative Bank has caused me repeated problems. It failed to update its records with my current phone number, it has not provided membership dividends I am due and it failed to process a payment to a health insurer, causing the policy to lapse. NL

Answer: We have intervened and requested these matters be resolved immediately - and they have. A Co-op spokesman agrees that there were "delays in us responding" to your complaints.

The bank has offered an apology and has credited your account with £300.