Sports Calendar

If there is a defect with a new car that’s still under warranty and the dealership where you bought it is not listening, try the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (www.smmt.co.uk ). This trade body has a detailed advice service explaining what your rights are and whether you can make a claim against the manufacturer. If it is a secondhand car the Retail Motor Industry Federation (www.rmif.co.uk ) holds its members (car dealers and garages) to a code of practice and offers advice on how you can claim.

FINES

Perhaps the biggest source of anger over bureaucratic charges is fines. Parking fines in particular are handed out by overzealous traffic wardens for even the smallest infringement and often when no breach has taken place.

Barrie Segal, a chartered accountant, has set up www.appealnow.com , which enables motorists to appeal against incorrectly issued tickets. Simply log on to the site, type in the details of the alleged offence (including parking ticket number and your car registration) and for a charge of £7.99 an appeal will be e-mailed direct to the relevant local authority. The site has a similar process for moving traffic offences (such as yellow box contraventions) and for nonpayment of congestion charge fines. Segal claims to have a 85% success rate.

The www.iva.co.uk site will e-mail a free booklet on how to make a DIY appeal (the site is about debt, but the booklet is available to anyone). If that doesn’t work, you can appeal online to the official parking adjudicator at www.parking-appeals.gov.uk .

Since they involve the courts, speeding fines are more complicated than parking tickets. However, a flowchart at www.safetycamera.org.uk illustrates the process, and the site, a collaboration between Hampshire police and other bodies, links to partner sites around the country, most of which show precisely where speed cameras are.

If you want to contest a fine, check out www.pepipoo.com . This site has been operating for a number of years and gives aggrieved motorists the chance to relate their experiences and offer advice on how to contest speeding fines. It is free and has advice that is better than many of the sites that offer to contest your fines for a fee.

FLYING

Airlines, like railways, are not always very forthcoming about your right to refunds but www.which.co.uk has done the investigative work so you don’t have to.

It has template letters on how to claim money or compensation if your flight is cancelled, rerouted or delayed. If you paid by credit card, the government’s site, www.consumerdirect.gov.uk , makes claims simple with template letters.

If it’s hard getting your money back from a UK-based airline, it’s even worse with one in Europe. This is where you need the European ExtraJudicial Network, (tinyurl.com/2xtv7j ), a long name for a system that offers out-of-court solutions to cross-border disputes in Europe.

HOLIDAYS

If you have had the holiday from hell, it will help your claim if the operator belonged to a professional organisation. The whole point of Atol, the government’s licensing scheme for flights and air holidays, for example, is to offer financial protection if the company fails and www.caa.co.uk has downloadable claims form for failed Atol companies.

Holidays are an emotional purchase, and compensation covers woolly concepts like “loss of enjoyment”. This is a hard thing to put a sum of money on, and if you need professional help, sign up online to Which? Legal Services at www.which.co.uk . For £12.75 a quarter you get unlimited telephone legal advice from a specialist lawyer. It’s probably the cheapest legal advice you will ever get.

Timeshare might not have the dodgy reputation it once had but there can still be pitfalls. Its consumer association (www.timeshare.org.uk ) aims to help avoid them with an online form for purchasing queries.