As well as banking, the system has several other features, including shopping for CDs or wine, travel money and insurance, a cinema locator service and a pre-recorded weather service from the Met Office.As technologies develop, screenphones will come closer to being low-cost internet access devices The phone Barclays is using, made by Nortel, is modular. Even with a fast computer it can take several minutes to switch the machine on, a few more to load web browser software or a banking package, and more still to connect to the internet, pass through security and carry out a transaction. Users will be people who want something simpler than PC banking - which Barclays already offers - but who are still prepared to buy the special phone and pay the service charge of pounds 5 a month.Compared with internet banking services, such as those from Nationwide or the Co-op, Barclays' screenphone lacks features and flexibility But there are some significant advantages The screenphone is quick. UJ, London You are part of what is threatening to become a major problem.

Millions of homeowners were sold endowment policies in the 1980s but the first hint of possible difficulties did not come until about 1994. At that time, a few insurance firms asked policyholders to increase premiums. They reassured customers that only a handful of policyholders - mainly those who bought in the early 1990s - were affected. Unfortunately the number seems to be growing every year.The problem with endowment premiums is that they were set using assumptions about investment growth that now look unduly optimistic. Inflation in the 1990s has been lower than in the 1970s and 1980s It is expected to be even lower over the coming years. Lower inflation leads to lower investment returns.Most insurance companies continue to reassure policyholders that their endowments will pay off the mortgages. But if you want to be certain that your mortgage will be paid off by the date originally intended, you should convert it to a repayment mortgage.

You will have to make increased payments to your mortgage lender. If possible, keep paying into your endowment policy in order to get the full value of premiums already paid in. This would mean looking at the policy as a straightforward savings plan.There are other possibilities. You could maintain your interest-only mortgage and pay some money into an alternative savings plan - such as a PEP - rather than increase your endowment premiums.