Old shares

I recently found two old share certificates. One is for 10 shares in a company called Stella Shipping Co and is dated April 3rd, 1919 and the other is for 30 shares in Bride Steamship Company and is dated April 1st, 1920. Are they of any value?

Mr A.B., Monaghan

The Irish Stock Exchange tells me that Stella Shipping went into voluntary liquidation in September 1921 and that Bride Steamship Company was struck off the register in 1923. On that basis, the share certificates you hold would not have any face value.

However, they may well be worth something to collectors of marine memorabilia.

Bank charges

A recent article in The Irish Times stated there were no fees payable for conversion of a euro zone currency to pounds. Recently, I used my PASS card in an ATM in France and was hit with a 3.5 per cent charge by Bank of Ireland. Will these charges continue after January 1st next? Why is the charge the same for euro-zone and non-euro-zone currencies? Since there is currently no charge for using a domestic ATM, should not all euro-zone ATMs be considered as domestic?

A further query is why Bank of Ireland charges me for taking money from my current account when it does not charge me for taking it from my credit card account (assuming both are in credit) while using ATMs abroad?

Mr S.L., Dublin

I think you are confusing charges here. You are right when you say that the conversion of euro-zone currencies into pounds and vice versa no longer attracts foreign exchange charges, as they are effectively different denominations of the same currency. What you have encountered are charges of a different sort. To use your Pass card abroad, as Bank of Ireland have explained, you need to have Cirrus. This is essentially a service offered to Pass customers, but it is one for which you are charged. As you say, the charge is 3.5 per cent, with a minimum charge of £2.50.

Basically, Cirrus operates across a number of different networks and charges users for the privilege of access. It is for much the same reason that you will see bank customers pay cross-border charges for non-national cheques in the new year - there is no central clearing house (partly because the creation of one would remove a profitable line of business from the banks).

This also explains why there is a difference between domestic and cross-border transactions. Domestically you use the Pass network, whereas abroad you are using Cirrus, which ties you into a range of different networks.

Visa does not attract charges in the same way because it operates as a single network across its areas of operations. Also, it makes its money largely by charging retailers a percentage of each transaction - which explains why certain European countries are less open to its use.

So, yes, you will continue to pay a charge for using your ATM card abroad in the new year, unfair as this seems within the euro zone. One speck of hope on the horizon is the prospect of a European Union directive harmonising charges for cross-border cash transfers.

Quite rightly, the mandarins in Brussels reason - as you have - that people will not understand why they have to pay charges for withdrawing money within what is going to be the one currency zone. The public will expect, quite properly, that the rationale of the euro zone dictates that it should be treated as a domestic market for bank customers.

On the other hand, it is worth remembering that in many states, including Britain, financial institutions charge for use of ATMs by customers other than those of the bank which issued the particular ATM card in the first place - and that is in the domestic market.

SSIAs

After starting an SSIA with ACCBank, I read that the bank was likely to be sold or taken over by another group. I don't know if this has happened or is still likely. Does this put my SSIA investment at risk? If so, what action can I take?

Mr C.McC., Dublin

No it doesn't. ACC had been up for sale since before the arrival of the special savings incentive account scheme and the deal for its takeover by Rabobank was announced last week.

However, the acquiring institution will not be allowed to retrospectively change its rules regarding such accounts. The buyer is effectively buying the business as it is - possibly with certain Government indemnities in relation to legal action the bank is facing. It could, of course, change the ground rules for people taking out such accounts with ACC between now and the end of the SSIA eligibility period, although it has not indicated to date that it will do so.

Pensions

My current employer has provided me with a company pension plan for the last two years. Before I joined the company I was contracting, and had already started my own private pension. I was not aware until recently that I should have stopped the payments into my private pension for the duration of my permanent employment. Can you confirm that this is the case?

My plan was to transfer the funds from my company pension into my private pension when I leave my current employer.

Secondly, at some stage I intend returning to my home and starting new employment in Northern Ireland. Is it possible to transfer a pension fund from a southern-based account (punt/euro), to a northern-based account (sterling)? Are there pension providers which will facilitate the changeover?

Mr P.C., e-mail

The situation at the moment is not very much in your favour, but that is likely to change. On the first point, you are quite right to suspect that you should not have been paying into a personal pension plan when you were simultaneously a member of a company or occupational scheme.

With regard to your plan to transfer funds from your current occupational scheme into your personal pension scheme when you leave your current employment, that is not possible under current rules. What you can do is leave your benefit paid up within the occupational scheme until such time as you are eligible to draw it down, or you could opt for a buy-out bond from an insurance company which would similarly restrict you in terms of access.

Under legislation currently going through the Oireachtas, you will be able to put the benefit you hold under an occupational pension scheme into a personal retirement savings account (PRSA), which looks likely to be more flexible.

As to your intention to return home to the North, you should be able to transfer your personal pension plan into a sterling-based account, according to the Pensions Board. The situation with any benefits in your occupational/company scheme is more complex. Any preserved benefits - rights to company pension schemes which typically kick in after five years, in accordance with the minimum requirements of the law - could not be transferred outside the jurisdiction under the rules as they now stand, even to the North.

If you have not been with the company long enough to have preserved benefit, you should be able to transfer the funds you have paid into an occupational scheme outside the jurisdiction.

Mind you, from the wording of your letter, you may well be a member of a non-contributory occupational scheme, in which case you would have nothing to transfer.

The time limit for preserved benefits is coming down to two years under the new Pensions Bill, but other provisions of the Bill are likely to see a change to a more flexible regime. In the Bill, there is a provision for the Minister to prescribe arrangements for the transfer of pension assets of early leavers such as yourself. It may well be, therefore, that you will be able to transfer all your pension assets to the North.

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.