Please send your queries to Dominic Coyle, Q&A, The Irish Times, D'Olier Street, Dublin 2 or e-mail to dcoyle@irish-times.ie. This column is a reader service and is not intended to replace professional advice. Due to the volume of mail, there may be a delay in answering queries. All suitable queries will be answered through the columns of the newspaper. No personal correspondence will be entered into.

Pensions

I have recently made a substantial increase to a personal pension plan with Ark Life. They have created a new policy for the increase, instead of adding it to the current policy. This seemed a bit odd to me but when I rang them I was told this was the usual practice. Is it?

Mr N.W., e-mail

It may be usual for Ark Life but it is by no means universal. That said, there is nothing that should concern you in what the company has done, according to a number of people within the industry to whom I have spoken. Most importantly, the holding of a second policy should not in any way affect the charges you would pay for the plan. And, indeed, when I spoke to Ark Life, it confirmed this was the case. The charges are the same whether your monthly payments are held in one policy or a dozen.

It explained that the reason your monthly increase was put into a separate plan was for internal administrative reasons - in other words, it was easier for them that way.

It is your policy and these institutions should be looking at what is more convenient for you, the customer.

Quite apart from anything else, it is more hassle for the customer to have to keep records of two or more policies for the one product - in this case your pension plan.

If it is any consolation, you are not alone. Ark Life tells me there are quite a number of its customers with two and even three such plans to accommodate pension policy increases and that the practice regularly results in calls from confused clients.

It would have been nice to think that Ark Life would have explained clearly how it was going to handle the increase in your monthly payments when you approached it in the first place to raise them.

Incidents such as this only highlight how the pensions industry can be quite poor in ensuring that customers, who are often very unsure of themselves in such matters, clearly understand what they are doing and how their plans will operate.

SSIAs

Can you tell me whether there are any institutions providing ethical fund options under the SSIA scheme? I have found an ethical fund offered by Friends Provident and would be interested to know what other companies offer them and in seeing an independent analysis of how they fare.

I note that ethical funds aim not to invest in companies that cause environmental damage and pollution, exploit third-world countries, cause unnecessary exploitation of animals, sell pornography, etc. What is one to infer about conventional funds?

Ms S.S., Dublin

As far as I am aware, there is only one "ethical" fund offered in the Republic and that is the one to which you refer from Friends Provident, now known as Friends First. In terms of independent analysis of performance, fund performance is noted each week on page four of this section of Business This Week and produced by Moneymate.

However, I would counsel caution about what you read into the term ethical and, by extension, what you read into funds that do not carry such a title.

The way you phrase the question would seem to imply that funds not availing of "ethical" status know full well that they are investing in one or other of the areas you outline.

This is not always the case. It may simply be that they are not fully aware of exactly what all the companies in which they invest spend all of their money. Remember, business is a complex web and it takes a lot for a fund to comprehensively declare itself ethical.

It also needs to be noted that ethical funds are not all alike; some allow investment in areas that would see them stripped of their ethical moniker under different management.

Foreign currency

Over the years, I have taken holidays in various countries in western Europe. Usually having some banknotes left over on returning home and hoping to visit those countries again, I have held on to the notes.

Recently, because of the advent of the euro, I took some deutschmarks, Italian lira and Swiss francs to the local bank branch only to be told that they are out-of-date and can only be cashed in the countries concerned. Is there no place in Ireland where I can cash these notes? The total amount involved is about £300.

Mr J.O'B., Galway

I imagine there is a large number of people in your position - holding notes that have ceased to be legal tender some time since their holiday. In essence, the situation is exactly the same as it will be in January for the existing banknotes in all member-states of the euro-zone.

Quite apart from the fact that it would hardly be worth your while - even with current airline seat sales - to return to Germany, Switzerland and Italy to cash in a cumulative £300 in foreign currency, the bank concerned was wrong in the advice it gave.

In fact, you can convert banknotes of any euro-zone denomination at the Central Bank. Better still, it's charge-free.

The only drawback is that you will have to find some way of getting your unwanted euro-zone banknotes up to the Bank in Dublin, as it has no other outlets.

Of course, this facility only applies to banknotes from within the euro zone; you will still have to find a way of converting your out-of-date Swiss francs. Talking to the Irish Bankers' Federation, there appears to be little chance of having these notes honoured unless you can get them back to Switzerland.

The Central Bank will continue to cash all notes of euro-zone member-states up to the end of next March, but the sooner you get to them the better, as it is likely to be fairly hectic in the New Year.