CC fraud by family

MPH80

chattychappy wrote: »

Yes, I think you were!

I just want to apologise! I've re-read my post and realised it's come across as really rather obnoxious which was not my intention at all.

In fact - I probably should have just posted the link without any of the associated text at all.

That'll teach me to post late at night.

chattychappy

I certainly didn't read it that way!

CKhalvashi

longtermplanner wrote: »

NO. There are places where you can get free help and they won't be judgemental either. Try 1 of these three:

Citizens Advice Bureau (face to face) http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/index/getadvice.htm
StepChange (telephone advice) http://www.stepchange.org/
National Debtline (telephone advice) http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/

Either your parents can ask for help or you can if they will give you a letter authorising you to deal with all matters relating these alleged debts. Although to be honest it is better if they do it themselves as you may simply not know some of the information and you may find it personally difficult to keep asking your parents questions.

It may be worth getting letters of permission posted (2nd class stamp, plus proof of postage, free from a post office), and consulting the lenders yourself.

If it's a high street bank, you may be able to go in with parent(s) and deal with it face to face re statements (although you may have to pay for these, maximum charge should be £10 per institution, and if they don't agree to this, a full SAR (which will cost £10) may be cheaper)

chattychappy wrote: »

Well solicitors are not (should not be) judgemental either. Out of the above, I would choose the CAB, though frankly my experience of them has been pretty poor on legal stuff. Depends who you get. I have nothing against these organisations, but this is not a debt issue, it is a dispute/legal issue. If the OP contacts them, they must engage on this level rather than run the "let's compile a statement of affairs" procedure.

Through the CAB, you may be able to get a free half hour with a solicitor (it's definitely something that ours offers) to get some basic advice, with no obligation to give them work/money.

I have a friend who is solicitor, that will give time away for free to those that can't afford it through the CAB, and asks for donations to be made to Shelter (yours may ask a different charity, but this lady was formerly homeless)

OP: Interest/charges etc in respect of the unauthorised charges should all be refunded. CRA reports should be cleaned up too. The principle is that your parents should be put into the position they would have been in had none of this happened. But £15K... the bank will kick up dust.

Oh and having paid the minimums doesn't make it too late to get the money back. The only issue I can see is that the bank might try and use this to suggest that somehow your brother was acting with your parents' authority.

Yes, a fuss probably will be kicked up, however IMO you should be able to get interest paid refunded too, which will make life A LOT easier.

If at 0% on cards, I'd recommend that 8.5% interest would be reasonable, as this is the statutory legal rate.

I also wanted to make sure that OP got on ok with the forms I emailed her last night, as this will make it easier to log each case.

CK