Son's Debt Seriously Affecting Parents

super7star

Hi I wonder if someone can help. My brother, who lives with our parents, is in debt; my parents are inundated with phone calls from debt collection agency, several a day, this is now causing them real distress as the callers are quite often rude and intimidating in their approach. They haven’t wanted to give out his mobile number (misplaced loyalty) but it has got so bad that they have decided to do so. But he never answers his mobile phone so the agencies will probably still call the landline and the calls will continue. It sounds daft but mum doesn’t want to change their landline number, she’s had it for 25 years and doesn’t want to be bullied into it.

My parents, despite having little debt of their own (only a few hundred on a credit card and no mortgage) are now being refused credit. From what I’ve read bad debit shouldn’t be attached to an address it’s the person, is that right?

My brother, despite being asked to get it sorted, i.e. contact the debt agencies (at least get them off my parent’s backs), citizens advise, etc has done nothing.

My parents just don’t know where to turn. How do they stop the phone calls and can they check to see if my brother’s debt is affecting their own credit rating. If is it what can they do?

I’m not sure if I’ve posted in the right place but I’m hoping someone can help, this has been going on for years now and I don’t think my mum can take much more.

Thank you.

LilacPixie

when each company calls. get a name, number, address and ask if the call is being recorded. then say this telephone number belongs to Mrs/Mr XXX not the person you are looking for. Please delete this number from your records immediatly. if you make any further calls to this number I will report you to all relevent autoroties and then follow this up with a letter. There is a template letter someplace for debtors requesting contact by letter only. The could canabalise that.

Your parents can check their own credit report with equifax, experian and call credit for £2 each per company.

Debt is attatched to person not address but if your dad has the same name as your brother such as joe bloggs and joe bloggs junior then it has been known for information to be accidently transposed. Easy enough corrected by notifying the relevent agency though.

podperson

First of all check in the letter templates for the letter regarding telephone harrassment and get a copy sent off to all the creditors advising them that all contact should be in writing only - could perhaps also adjust it slightly to add that this is not a valid contact number for the person they are after.
I'm not 100% sure how the credit ratings work, so hopefully someone more knowledgeable will advise soon, but as far as I am aware although any bad debts are linked to the individual if you are financially linked to someone with a bad credit rating then it can drag yours down as well. So if they have anything in joint names or he is getting bills to the home address then this could be affecting them. They can request a copy of their credit file.
Your brother really needs to take some sort of control of this though as they are just going to keep trying to contact him until he does!

RobertoMoir

podperson wrote: »

although any bad debts are linked to the individual if you are financially linked to someone with a bad credit rating then it can drag yours down as well. So if they have anything in joint names

The above statement is correct

or he is getting bills to the home address then this could be affecting them.

This is not correct. (If that were true then I could financially link the queen or the prime minister to my credit file by just telling people I've moved to 10 downing street, and that's clearly ludicrous).

Your brother really needs to take some sort of control of this though as they are just going to keep trying to contact him until he does!

Clearly the brother concerned is quite happy with things as they are or he would already be dealing with them.

This may sound harsh but maybe the parents need to firmly tell him "You and your debts are leaving home by the end of the month, period, end of discussion, why are you still here looking like you're in a conversation because talking time is all finished now".

Experian_company_representative

The other money savers are right. Credit checks take place on people not addresses and people can only be linked by joint credit. People are identified by full name and DOB these days so mix-ups shouldn't happen.

Personally I think your brother needs some tough love - i.e. seek help with your debts or move out. Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.

James

[Deleted User]

had these kind of problems when my ds was at home,frankly i just told the callers that he no longer lived here,when they asked for his new address i told them it wasn`t for me to do their job for them.The calls soon stopped,

super7star

thanks a lot guys for the advice, can you point me in the direction of the template letters, can't find them

DarkConvict

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=33791363&postcount=2 letters 27.1 to 27.6 should suit you.

FTW

Use the telephone harassment letter, and complain to the Office of Fair Trading's Consumer Credit licence division.

Katief07

It is worth checking the name thing though although mistakes like that should not happen it is possible. It happened to my partner a few years ago him and his dad have the same name, it started with debt collectors turning up at our door looking for Mr XXX we soon sent them on there way and told them they had the wrong person, but somehow because they had our address they linked it with the credit, when he went through a credit check some months later it looked like fraud because of the different DOB etc, he had to contact experian and get a notice of correction.