Feeling stupid

rubylinux

Hello,
I hope I am in the right section. I'm 17 (18 in 7months) and a few months ago i applied for a store card and a mobile phone contract. I was accepted on both and now I am really worried about getting caught. I have about 10months left on the mobile contract and I do not owe much on my store card. I can definately pay off the store cards and the mobile contract monthly. What would happen if it was discovered that I was underage and I had applied for credit and a mobile contract? Would I be taken to court, or even sent to prison and would I have a criminal record? I feel like a fool now and I would never do it again, but I'm really worried about it?
Thanks,

Ruby

Any

Are you saying that you lied about your date of birth on the application?

rubylinux

Yes I lied about my age on my applications.

anotherpaul_2

As long as you don't miss payments, you'll probably get away with it on the current credit accounts. However, when you reach 18 and start applying for credit with your correct age, the discrepancy might get flagged up, which could affect your chances of getting credit in future.

You committed fraud, so they could take you to court if they find out. I think it's highly unlikely that you'd go to jail for petty financial fraud. A fine and maybe some community service seems more likely. Obviously, the criminal record is inconvenient too. It probably won't come to that, of course.

sequence

I won't go into the moral aspects of a company supplying credit to underage people....

However you can be 99% certain that the companies won't give a toss, so long as your paying them interest they really won't care. Any legal implications will be more likely for the company than yourself. You won't be going anywhere near prison, unless you've somehow defrauded them out of millions somehow :rotfl:

Degenerate

If I were you, I'd pay off and cancel the store card ASAP and cancel the mobile contract at the end of its minimum. Do you expect to be moving to a new address for University? If so, you could probably start a new "clean" credit file there once you turn 18, unrelated to the naughty one.

Any

I also suggest that you just cancel the card and contract as soon as you can.

The chances are it won't get flagged up.
Accounts will show as settled and once you apply for new card noone will know what the circumstances of the previous credit were (available guarantor etc..).
But would you get into trouble with these contracts then they might do the worse to you.

To be honest I don't know how they didn't notice it in the first place as apparently they do all different kind of credit checks etc..So they tell us. Obviously someone (or the automatic system) has failed in the organisation.

charlesworth82

as long as you put your correct date of birth and dont use the same address (even as history) then you will be fine for the future.

Robert_Sterling

You committed fraud.
The opinion here seems to be that you will get away with it.
Who do they think you are an MP?