Newbie in need of help

georgie316

Hello all,

My names George and Im in debt, so hopefully this is the first step to recovery

After finally landing the job I have tried to get since I left school (11 years ago) I decided it was time to start looking into where I got myself into this problem.

It all started with a loan that I got back when I was 21 to buy a car, at the time the bank gave me a credit card with a HUGE limit. I maxxed the card out within a few months, mainly on modifying the car, after 6 months I got bored and got another loan to pay off the card and get more stuff for the car. From here I got into the snowball effect of "topping up" each year. So what effectively started as a £3500 loan has now added up to a whopping £24000 :eek:

Im now in a position to start getting a grip of reality and getting this sorted. This led me to creditexpert to see whats what and what to do. Now dont get me wrong I have NEVER missed a payment, sometimes really struggling and not being able to buy food or fuel but have always paid my bills.

As you can imagine I was shocked to find that I had 23 accounts on my report with 17 of them defaulted :mad: but upon closer inspection I found that they weren't mine and that they were my brothers So I looked a little further and found that I have an alias in the name of my brother.

The alias was created by Goldfish Bank ltd, which I have found out is owned by barclays. So I thought it was best to get this sorted and rang Barclays but to no avail. They said if I didnt have an account with them then they couldnt speak to me. So next step was to write a letter explaining my problem and asked them nicely to rectify it. Again was told the same as the phone call.

I have fallen at the first hurdle of fixing my credit history and could really do with some help on what to do. So please any help would be muchly appreciated.

PS sorry for the long opening post

terri72

Just want to say welcome.

Can't really offer you much advise as I'm a newbie here too really, but in my experience some-one will be along later who will be able to offer you lots of help and advise.

The only think I can think of is have you spoke to Creditexpert and advised them that these accounts are not yours and see what help they can offer?

georgie316

terri72 wrote: »

Just want to say welcome.

Can't really offer you much advise as I'm a newbie here too really, but in my experience some-one will be along later who will be able to offer you lots of help and advise.

The only think I can think of is have you spoke to Creditexpert and advised them that these accounts are not yours and see what help they can offer?

Thanks for the welcome, I havent tried contacting them as they said to contact the people responsible for the mistake

halight

Hi,

Welcome to the forums mate. and well done in takeing control of your debt.
the only advice on can give you is try phoneing Creditexpert and asking them what you need to do to get this sorted. its there job to know these thing and to advice and sort problems out when needed. Apart from them you could try speaking to your local CAB office.
all the best mate and let us know how you get on. im sure that there may be soone else on here that may be on later that may have more advice for you.

Good luck

hypno06

Hi and welcome - I can imagine it was a huge shock to find all that stuff on your credit file.

If 17 of these accounts are in your brother's name, do you have 17 people to contact to get them to fix things or is it all barclays-related?

I can understand that they won't give you any help over the phone but of course that doesn't help you. So I think you need to either write to the Fraud department of each account that is in your brothers name and ask them to look into it, formally, and in writing. That way, you can keep a copy of your correspondence to prove that you are trying to sort this out, and you can take that correspondence to anyone else who needs to get involved.

Is this just a pure error or has your brother knowingly used your credit file to get funds himself? If he has knowingly done this, then the financial institutions concerned may ask for a police record number to be obtained before they will look into this further - this obviously puts a little pressure on you because it involves family, but it is something you may have to consider.

I would get an appointment with the CAB too - they may have more ideas for you.

As for your own debt - we can certainly help you focus on hammering that down. If you post your SOA which can be found at the top of this board, we can have a look to see if we can come up with ideas for streamlining your own finances and being able to get rid of the debt quicker. Another useful tool is the snowball calculator on www.whatsthecost.com which can give you your debt free date, and acts as a really good motivator as you try and bring that date forward.

Good luck!

georgie316

Ok I will try and clear it up a bit more.

My brother hasn't been applying for credit in my name nor as a guarantor (sp?) The alias is his exact details name, address, date of birth etc. The only things we share are addresses and his name is Bernard which is the same as my second name.

His story of credit history is pretty much the same as mine but when he couldnt afford it anymore he just stopped paying and left it for 4 years before he did anything about it.

The thing is now he's back on track and paid these debts they are all "satisfied defaults" but whenever hes applying for credit its coming up on my record so I thought the first step would be to get rid of the alias then start working on the records or am I going about this the wrong way?

georgie316

Oh and just to add about my own debt,

I currently owe car finance which will be cleared in 3 years (unless I can afford to put more into it) and I owe my bank for my loan which will be cleared in 6½ years (again unless I can put more into it) and finally my credit card which I owe £1250 which will be paid off before February.

My debts are exactly that and I dont plan on changing them or trying to cheat them, not even going onto a DMP. The way Im sorting them is will power, stopping myself from buying stuff I really dont need etc but ideally I want to have them finished within 3 years and start saving towards a house