diff --git a/Database/HDBC/ODBC/Statement.hsc b/Database/HDBC/ODBC/Statement.hsc
--- a/Database/HDBC/ODBC/Statement.hsc
+++ b/Database/HDBC/ODBC/Statement.hsc
@@ -315,8 +315,14 @@
 bindSqlValue :: SqlValue -> IO BoundValue
 bindSqlValue sqlValue = case sqlValue of
   SqlString s -> do
+-- GHC for Windows strings are implemented with wchar_t symbols, which are 16-bit UCS-2 and ODBC
+-- driver expects exactly that type. On Linux machines things get harder because wchar_t is 32-bit
+-- (UTF-32) while ODBC WCHAR might be either 16 or 32 bit. So on Linux we convert our string to
+-- UTF-8 and pass it to the driver telling it that we are passing SQL_C_CHAR data for a SQL_WCHAR
+-- column and hoping that the driver will convert back from UTF-8 to appropriate representation.
+#ifdef mingw32_HOST_OS
     (wstrPtr, wstrLen) <- newCWStringLen s
-    let result = BoundValue 
+    let result = BoundValue
           { bvValueType         = #{const SQL_C_WCHAR}
           , bvDefaultColumnType = #{const SQL_WCHAR}
           , bvDefaultColumnSize = fromIntegral wstrLen
@@ -326,6 +332,22 @@
           }
     l $ "bind SqlString " ++ s ++ ": " ++ show result
     return result
+#else
+    let utf8ByteString = BUTF8.fromString s
+    B.unsafeUseAsCStringLen utf8ByteString $ \(unsafeStrPtr, strLen) -> do
+      safeStrPtr <- mallocBytes strLen
+      copyBytes safeStrPtr unsafeStrPtr strLen
+      let result = BoundValue
+            { bvValueType         = #{const SQL_C_CHAR}
+            , bvDefaultColumnType = #{const SQL_WCHAR}
+            , bvDefaultColumnSize = fromIntegral strLen
+            , bvDefaultDecDigits  = 0
+            , bvBuffer            = castPtr safeStrPtr
+            , bvBufferSize        = fromIntegral strLen
+            }
+      l $ "bind SqlString " ++ s ++ ": " ++ show result
+      return result
+#endif
   SqlByteString bs -> B.unsafeUseAsCStringLen bs $ \(s,len) -> do
     res <- mallocBytes len
     copyBytes res s len
diff --git a/HDBC-odbc.cabal b/HDBC-odbc.cabal
--- a/HDBC-odbc.cabal
+++ b/HDBC-odbc.cabal
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 Name: HDBC-odbc
-Version: 2.4.0.0
+Version: 2.4.0.1
 Cabal-Version: >=1.8
 Build-type: Simple
 License: BSD3
diff --git a/changelog.txt b/changelog.txt
--- a/changelog.txt
+++ b/changelog.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2.4.0.1 - 15 May 2015
+
+  * Switched to using UTF-8 encoding for binding WCHAR_T values on Linux. Earlier version tried
+    to use C wchar_t type, which confused some (in particular PostgreSQL) drivers.
+
 2.4.0.0 - 12 Nov 2014
 
   * Changed parameter binding implementation to fix bugs with wide character strings and binary
diff --git a/hdbc-odbc-helper.c b/hdbc-odbc-helper.c
--- a/hdbc-odbc-helper.c
+++ b/hdbc-odbc-helper.c
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@
   newobj->extrainfo = NULL;
   newobj->parent = parentobj;
   if (parentobj != NULL) {
-    __sync_add_and_fetch(&parentobj->refcount, 1);
+    odbc_atomic_increment(&parentobj->refcount);
   }
 #ifdef HDBC_DEBUG
   fprintf(stderr, "\nWrapped %p at %p\n", obj, newobj);
@@ -72,6 +72,8 @@
   int isFinalized = odbc_sync_val_compare_and_swap(&res->isfinalized, 0, 1);
   if (isFinalized)
     return;
+  if (!res->encapobj)
+    return;
   // Microsoft SQL Server driver might deadlock if calling SQLCloseCursor on a statement that is in the
   // process of fetching data via network. So we cancel it first.
   SQLCancel((SQLHSTMT) (res->encapobj));
@@ -104,6 +106,9 @@
   int isFinalized = odbc_sync_val_compare_and_swap(&res->isfinalized, 0, 1);
   if (isFinalized)
     return 0;
+  if (!res->encapobj)
+    return SQL_SUCCESS;
+
   retval = SQLDisconnect((SQLHDBC) (res->encapobj));
   if (SQL_SUCCEEDED(retval)) {
     SQLFreeHandle(SQL_HANDLE_DBC, (SQLHANDLE) (res->encapobj));
@@ -127,7 +132,7 @@
   /* Don't use sqlFreeHandleDbc_app here, because we want to clear it out
      regardless of the success or failues of SQLDisconnect. */
     int isFinalized = odbc_sync_val_compare_and_swap(&res->isfinalized, 0, 1);
-    if (!isFinalized) {
+    if (!isFinalized && res->encapobj) {
       SQLDisconnect((SQLHDBC) (res->encapobj));
       SQLFreeHandle(SQL_HANDLE_DBC, (SQLHANDLE) (res->encapobj));
       SQLFreeHandle(SQL_HANDLE_ENV, (SQLHANDLE) (res->extrainfo));