Mum has debts in sister's name

CherylOB

Hey,

Not really sure if this is the right place for this, but here goes..

My younger sister lives with our mum. Our mum has a bad credit rating and cannot get any credit in her own name. We have found out that she has opened credit accounts in my sister's name and payments are now overdue.. My sister has received a letter from a debt collection agency this morning saying they will be visiting.

Other than shop her to the police for fraud, is there anything we can do about this?

Thanks,
Cheryl

woohoo_postingid

Pay the debt ?

beer_tins

Other than paying, or getting your Mum to pay (presumably she can't), there's not a lot that can be done.

I'm afraid your Mum has committed fraud. It's horrible to have to shop your Mum, but there may not be much of an option, unless your sister is prepared to take on the responsibility of the debt.

RAS

Hi

Unless your sister reports the debt as fraudulent, her credit rating is now wrecked by mum.

She can report mum, pay the debt or fight the DCA but the longer she fails to pay the worse it gets.

I suggest you both tackle mum and tell her that unless the whole sum is paid up quickly, you will report the account as fraudulent.

Sadly we see a lot of this - the week before last it was someone whose mother had been taking out loan in the names of all her daughters and not repaying them and last week is was the partner of a guy with two kids who ran up £30K's worth of debt.

You must both get protective registration with CIFAS as this would stop your mother running up more debts in your sister's name or your name.

http://www.cifas.org.uk/default.asp?edit_id=565-85

This would prevent her ever taking out debts in your sister's name again.

I would recommend that you both get your credit records and if there is anything else untoward warn any other relatives who she might have taken out accounts in the name of.

You may also need to sit mum down and do an SOA to see what her income is, and talk to sister about her contribution to the household income. We see a lot of older woment who have been in receipt of benefits who lose those when their children reach 18 and have no replacement income and struggle badly. Often their bare coping falls apart at that stage and they get into debt.

CherylOB

My sister is currently out of work, so paying them isn't really a viable option. There is a very high interest credit card and a few catalogues (that we currently know of) probably totalling around £1500.

I have bailed my mum out several times before with regards to debt but she doesn't ever learn her lesson. It's not an option for me to pay them anyway at the moment, otherwise I would - just to put my sister's mind at rest.

It's a terrible situation to be in. We just don't know what to do. My mum wastes money on very unnecessary things, their fridge is always filled to the brim and then loads of food gets wasted as there is only the two of them. We have tried talking to her in the past about her money situation, but she doesn't listen, just starts shouting and storms off.

RAS

1. Your sister need to check her credit records. She can get these for free. This will identify the list of accounts that are a problem.

2. She need to write to every one of the creditors and advise them that the account was taken out fraudulently.

3. She need to register with CIFAS. This will stop mum doing the same again.

I strongly advise you to check your own credit record and regsiter with CIFAS, as the cases reported here suggest that once one avenue closes, the person moves onto the next. The OP last week found out that her sister had the same problem, and then spoke to all her other sister and found they had all been used in the same way.

tori.k

This does seem to be a worrying trend lately, could you not point your mum in the direction of this site and she put a SOA together to see if she can find a way of paying these debts as other's have stated nothing can be done unless you go the fraud route.
Ive got to admit its horrid enough when partners have done this, but parents! how do you ever get over something like that. best of luck

myothercarisaferrari

I'd report her:mad:

RAS

And even your sister needs to seriously think about moving out into a shared house. I know benefits hate it, but if SISter goes to CAb and get help re fraud they may well eb able to get her help with a deposit and the HB.

CherylOB

We requested her credit file a while back, as we suspected this (my mum did the same thing to me when I was younger - for a much larger amount) but my mum usually gets to the post before anyone else, so only passes on the letters that she wants to.

As much as she is my mum, I want to report her. She needs to learn that she cannot do this and it seems this would be the only way.

I'm going to do the cifas thing for both of us, as my sister just informed me a parcel has arrived today with my surname (my mum remarried).

Thanks for all your advice.

Tixy

I agree that it does sound like reporting her may be the only way to get her to stop. You and your sister need to look after your own finances first. If and when you Mum is ready to tackle her financial problems and debts then you can be there for her and you can point her in this direction. Until then I can see no other way to help her.