Nightmare Situation advice please...

skyeandeviesmummy

Hi

Im not sure if I have posted this in the right area or not? Basically my inlaws well MIL comitted credit fraud against my husband not once but twice! In 2003 we had moved in with them temporarily as we were saving for a deposit for our own place as I was pregnant, anyway a letter came through addressed to him which he opened and found that it was from a debt collection agency on behalf of Barclaycard saying he owed nearly £2000 which hadnt been paid. He was absolutely shocked he confronted his parents who admitted that they had used a credit card belonging to him and run up this debt and not paid it as they were struggling but they were now sorting it and gave him a right sob story! Anyway this is still on his credit file and will be till 2009 as he wouldnt take them to the police. Well all this had blown over until last weekend when we were in Currys and applying for credit for a tumble dryer and he was refused which he thought was strange as we had had a washing machine on credit from them in 2006 which we had paid off on time etc. Anyway we decided to check his credit file online and couldnt believe it that not only had a mail order account been taken out in his name in 2004 and defaulted in 2006 for about £400 it had also gone as far as a CCJ which was also listed on his account. Alarm bells immediately rang for me as it was listed at his parents address and low and behold when he rang the mail order place they were able to give the email address on the account and it was his mums he then threatned to call the police and gave them her telephone number anyway after a lot of going back and forth they rang and said that they had spoken to her and they would remove the items from his credit file including the CCJ and he would get a letter in the post in 14 days time which we are now waiting for.

My main worry is that they could have done this to me so I am now waiting for the online credit firm to issue me with a pin so I can check my file. Im also worried that they could do this to him again. My mum thinks as he is no longer on the voting list for that address they wont be able to, is this true?

I hope that this mail order firm takes it further with her being a mother myself I cant imagine another mother doing this to her child.

Sorry its such a long post any advice will be gratefully received.

jess1974

I'm sorry i have no advice, i just wanted to say your in laws are truly wicked and i think you should make the police aware, in case they try to do this to your husband again..

skyeandeviesmummy

Thanks for your post I wish he would he just keeps saying its my mum she really is an evil cow she has said some truly awful things to both him and myself over the years deliberately smoked in front of my asthmatic 4 year old as she wont be told what to do and then called her a liar. Im at my wits end its an impossible situation.

seabright

They could do it again, beacuse even though you now live at a different address I'm assuming they know that address. It would be harder but not impossible.

I think there's a way of adding a note to your credit files so that you are notified of every change and there may be a way of adding an "alert" so that nothing can get added without a extra hoop being jumped through. You should check if this is possible with the credit reference agencies.

What to do about the in-laws is harder. If it was a stranger I'm sure you wouldn't hesitate to contact the police, but it's not always so straight forward with family, is it?

Are you & your husband still in touch with them? Are there are siblings? Are they aware of what happened? If you're not in touch and if either there are no other siblings or if there are any they agree with you, I'd say go to the police - she could easily do it to someone else.

If you are still on civil terms, I don't know what you should do for the best. Sorry

MrsTinks

Just because he's not on the electoral roll for that address doesn't mean they can't do this again...
This is a criminal matter and has exceeded boundaries of "cutting your blood some slack" in my view. They have DIRECTLY caused you and your husband to be unable to look after your own children by messing up his credit.
If you have any financial products with your hubby they will also affect YOUR credit.

Your husband needs to get his credit file from all 3 of the credit agencies - as do you. Some lenders only deal with 1 agency and the details although they should, don't always get shared properly so there could be more out there!
Then he needs to file a dispute against each account he knows HE hasn't had anything to do with. And he needs to contact the county court about the CCJ... this one in particular is VERY serious! If they default on the CCJ we're talking bailiffs... and they'll come after your husband NOT his mum. Do you want to try and explain the situation to them on your doorstep? I'll bet you they will NOT believe you. That means YOUR possessions are at risk. How would you feel about your babies being in the middle of this? How would your husband feel if strangers came in and took thinsg from your home infront of your children? And these are usually not very nice people!

sooz

OMG - you need to call the police.

To do something like this ONCE is bad enough - to keep doing it is inexcusable.

Your relationship with your inlaws is already f*cked, and they have damaged your credit rating. You have nothing to lose by telling the authorities about their fraud. I wouldn't want to have any further contact with them, nor allow them anywhere near your immediate family.

I have doubts that you will be able to persuade any of these companies to remove the problems from your credit files if you don't take any action against your inlaws. Call the police, get it on record & then you have some concrete proof to give to the various companies that you are not responsible.

skyeandeviesmummy

Thanks for all your replies. Unfortunately they only live about five minutes from us so she does know our address and although I refuse to have anything to do with them now he still talks to his dad like nothing has happened and no doubt will his mum again before long. It makes me so angry they just use him. I have stopped her seeing the children I dont want them around her and I dont think they loose out by not seeing her as she brings nothing good into their lives at all. If it was me I would call the police and I will do so if anything dodgy shows up on my credit report regardless what my husband says.

I didnt know that there were three different credit agencies so I will get onto ordering all three of them. He does have a brother but he doesnt want him to know and as he has just had his house repossessed and defaulted on a large loan I doubt she could do the same to him although I shouldnt think she would he is the apple of her eye!!! It makes me so angry :mad: we have been so careful with our finances hubby was made redundant in Feb luckily he had applied as a prison officer before this and passed but we only found out his start date a few weeks ago and its not till October he has been working non stop trying to make ends meet (luckily we dont have a mortgage just rent) and we managed not to get too far into overdrafts by being as careful as we could and then this! Its put such a pressure on our marriage because I cant see why he would let her just do this and get away with it!

Sorry for the rant, thanks for all your practical advice I think I will regularly check credit files and have a look at that warning thing that lets you know when credit has been applied for.

Oldernotwiser

You're lucky that your husband's going into the Prison Service and not the Police . If he were going into the police he would not be able to do so with an outstanding CCJ. I don't think your husband realises the serious repercussions something like this could have on his family.

*Louise*

I think I will regularly check credit files and have a look at that warning thing that lets you know when credit has been applied for.

What a horrible situation to be in - especially with family members.

If you sigh up to an Experian site called credit expert (it's advertised on tv atm, and you can get 30 days free) it will send an alert to your email EVERY time something new happens with your credit file - new accounts, if anyone does a search, you will be notified. You can also check which accounts have defaults.

I think it's around £6.99 or so monthly if you want to keep the account after the 30 days, but in your seituation I think it would be worth if for a few months anyway.

Hope you have got things sorted out for now, but if it happens again - you are really going to have to notify the police to make it stop.

Paparika

OMG What kind of mother does that to her son.

Not once but again and again, that is pure evil, how is he supposed to provide for his own family when his parents are doing that to him.

I would hit the roof if my parents did that to me. There is asking for help when your skint, but to just take what you want with someone else's details is fraud and not on.

At least your wise enough to contact the credit agencies to inform them of whats going on.

Good luck and hope you can get your financial lives back up.

RedBern

terrible thing to happen to you - and awful situation for your husband to be in. However, as you've already said you can deal with the future - it's what has already happened you need to sort out.

You know all the practical stuff about telling the agencies etc but you need to sit down with your husband and talk about this properly. As previous post has said, this could have had much more serious implications in terms of his employment record. He needs to accept this is a very serious matter and his loyalty must lie with his children (and you - but I'd try to keep the 'me' in this separate as he's got enough to deal with). So HIS role is to provide for HIS children and ensure they are safe and protected. Again as has already been said you don't want bailiffs on doorstep - HE can stop them. He must speak to his mother and get her to understand the seriousness of what she's done/doing. He must also warn her that, should anything like this happen again, he'll have no option but to go to the police - and then he should follow that threat through if necessary.

I also think he should tell his brother... *(does his dad know what has happened??)
Hope this helps.