Tricky Question - Any Legal Eagles Out There????

dottyb17

Here's a tester for you...

I'm now 26 and when I was not old enough to have my own bank account (17 I think I was) the manager of my local HSBC changed my Date of Birth so that they could give me a bank account before I was legally allowed.

Ever since I have had a date of birth which makes me a year older than I am. I constantly worry about this as it could make me an accessory to fraud.

Since then, I have Been put into over £20,000 of debt by HSBC through loans, Credit Cards and Current Account charges which I have just started to try and reclaim.

My question is... Do I stand anywhere on taking any kind of action against the bank for illegally changing my date of birth so long ago in order to set me up on a path to such high debt!???

REAL... HONEST ADVICE PLEASE! (I can handle the truth!)

py6km

My initial reaction is that yourself and the bank are jointly liable for this bizarre state of affairs....the fact that you knew and essentially condoned this course of action is material and might affect whatever course you decided to take. That being said, you took advice from a professional - the bank in general would be very embarrassed about this I would think.

I can offer no specific advice, other than....seek professional advice (solicitor). However, the first thing *I* would do would be to go into a larger branch and ask to talk to someone fairly high up the pecking order. I would explain the situation and see what they say. I'm sure they'll bend over backwards to resolve all this.

Any other thoughts anyone?

Astaroth

You can certainly have your own bank account at 17, likewise you could have credit at that age however you are not legally liable for debt (at least most forms) until you turn 18 therefore lenders generally will not give credit to under 18s because if they decide not to pay there is nothing that can be done about it other than empty threats.

Who exactly changed your DoB? Where was this changed, on the application form? Directly on their IT system?

When you subsequently went on to open additional accounts like credit cards what DoB did you put on the application form? Were alteration to this made before or after you signed the form?

dottyb17

Well... In answer to the above

I think I may have been younger than 17. When I get a date for my opening an account I will know for sure...

The manager of my local bank input the false date of birth directly on to the computer. He told me it was just an administration course, which they would change but they never did.

Since then I have applied for credit in the form of a card and a loan. I have never filled in a form and input my date of birth as this information has always been on there... But I have signed the agreements with the false info on.

This really worries me but I feel that the bank have to answer for their part in the original offence when I was too young to know the consequences of my actions when all the bank wanted was to line their pockets with my money!

benood

I'll be surprised if an administrative error by the bank gets you off £20,000 of debt. I had a full current account at 14 so I'm not sure that your primary assumption is correct.

Good luck in escaping your liabilities though.

dottyb17

ha ha

I just wanted to know people's thoughts on it

Astaroth

The "problem" is that you have knowingly signed agreements with false details on it. If you were 16 or over then it would certainly be seen as criminal intent of committing fraud. If you were 12 or over (been a while since I did any criminal law) then it would be up to the court to decide if you were aware of the consequences of your actions.

For any debts run up before you were 18 then arguably you would not be liable for them as the contract they are based on is unenforcable. If you have later consolidated them into other credit taken out after you turned 18 then you have now legally accepted the debt and have no comeback. Obviously the risk of challenging is the criminal aspect and even if they are unlikely to press for police prosecution you almost certainly will be loaded to fraud registry which will be seen by every company going forward that you attempt to get any form of credit with.

It is probably worth gathering all your evidence and go down to the citizens advice bureau or if you have legal expenses cover on your home insurance then phone their free 24hr help line.

missk_ensington

In theory, there is a proprotion of blame to the bank, however if you took it further the owness would be in you to prove they coersed you to do it, rather than you wanting them to do it.

Their defence would inevitably be that you lied, and they merely entered information that they had in good faith to be true.

I'm surprised any bank would do this anyway, and I didn;t think you needed to be 18 to have a bank account anyway??? I've had one for as long as I can remember.

Me thinks maybe you wanted credit you were too young for, and you were probably more than happy to bend the rules and now you've been stupid and found yourself up !!!!!! creek you want to blame someone.

Dont think it will wash, unless you can dig out something tangible like an application form you filled in with your correct DOB on it

DavidHM

Was the date of birth changed so you could get a loan or merely to enter you onto the system with a bank account? Did you actually get any credit before you were 18?