Catalogue debt

chaz2489

HI all,

Looking for a bit of advise for my sister. Her and her partner have applied for a mortgage but were unable to get one due to credit ratings.

A very long story cut short, my other sister was looking into opening a catalogue account with littlewoods, She applied using the auto fill setting, not thinking to double check it because it was her own computer which is very rarely used by anybody. She only ordered a couple of things, and had set up a DD so assumed monies owing was being taken from her account. She only made 1 order with them. Its become apparent now however that the auto fill actually had my other sisters details on it. This was only discovered when my other sister started getting letters from DC. The amount owing how now been paid, my sisters didn't bother to inform anyone that the debt was in the wrong name because neither were aware of credit score complications ect.

Does anyone know how my sister can go about getting this removed from her credit file? It was a genuine mistake and my other sister feels awful thinking that it's her fault our sister can't get a mortgage.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

Hazzinho

Could be tough, it's ID fraud, you'd usually report to the police, without a police report it could be tough to get the account removed. I've never heard of someone accidentally applying for credit in someone else's name, how could she not notice? Might be worth speaking to the lender but its a very messy situation, credit remains for 6 years on credit files, as it went to DC I assume she has a default on her file which has a huge impact when applying for a mortgage.

Get your sister to check her files with all 3 agencies (Experian, Equifax and CallCredit), would be best to check no other accounts have accidentally been opened, I'd be furious.

chaz2489

Im not sure myself how she managed to do it. Im certain she is being truthful though because she has no reason to lie. And she's devastated its happened.

In regards to the police, do you know what happens? Will she have to go the police station ect?

Thanks for your reply

Hazzinho

ID fraud is a crime, your sister applying for the mortgage would need a crime number, without one it could be tough to remove the bad credit, you need a crime number as anyone with bad credit could say it was ID fraud. If it was a mistake you don't want you other sister in trouble.

Personally I'd view my files with Experian, Equifax and CallCredit to see if it's just the one account, then I'd speak to the lender, if they won't move it to your other sisters file it could get really messy as to how you resolve this, good luck!