A friend owes me money for a joint holiday. Her cheque has been returned to me by her bank as "payment stopped insufficient funds" The holiday was booked on 28th June 2010. The holiday starts 11th Sept 2010. My friend is now not answering her phone. Please advise as I have paid fully for the joint holiday. I do not no where I stand?

I would first stop referring to her as a friend, because she obviously isn't much of one. Stuff happens, sure, but if she had something going on and a good reason for this, she could at least answer her phone and explain it to you. (Unless of course she has been in some kind of accident, in the hospital, unavailable, that sort of thing. I assume you checked with others she knows to make sure there is no kind of trouble like that?)

Are you allowed to deposit a check more than once? Most banks here allow you to deposit a second time to see if it will go through. If you're allowed to do such a thing, I would try that.

Can you cancel the trip? Can you find someone else who wants to go? Or are you just pretty much stuck with the trip and the loss of the money? If you're stuck with the loss of this money, it might be cheaper to cancel and take a hit of whatever penalties may be charged.

You have legal recourse. You have a verbal agreement that she is to pay half, and I think having that check for half "proves" her intent to pay half. (If you actually have the returned check, make a copy. If not, see if the bank has a copy online or one they can get or something.) I would not feel at all guilty about taking a "friend" to court (probably whatever your equivalent of small claims court is), since this is not much of a friend to leave you stuck with this. (Again, unless of course something serious has happened to her that she has not been able to respond.) Leave a message that she has left you no option but to resort to a legal action and see what that does. The threat may do something. But be ready to follow up on the threat.

(This is not legal advice. This is just what I would try to do if it were me. I would certainly not ignore that type of loss of money.)

As for your bad feelings... you apparently got hurt. So you hurt for a while, like the rest of us have all had happen at some time or another. Being angry at someone you really care about can hurt even more. That's something you'll have to take one day at a time until you don't hurt so much and start to get over it. If your hurt is more important than the money, and dealing with the money will just make it hurt more, then you may have to decide where your priorities lie - that's a decision only you can make.