Advice please

Kraftskiva

Hi Moneysavers,

Hoping I can pick your collective brains on something.

I recently encouraged my girlfriend to get a credit report in order that we can start to build her a decent credit rating. She's from Scandinavia and although she's had credit agreements like BT and overdrafts before in the UK, she's not had a credit card. I encouraged her to get a report so that we can deal with any issues and find her the right card to start with.

The credit report came back today and was fine in general - no missed payments, addresses correct etc. What it did reveal was that a scumbag ex-boyfriend of hers had taken out several payday loans in her name in the first half of last year which she had been unaware of.

The first of these appears to have been taken out while they were together - he looks to have created an account with Wonga using her bank details and used that account a number of times. All of these loans were paid back but are showing on her credit report. This is among a number of other thefts that he made from her (including a £2k cash withdrawal).

She closed the relevant bank account a while back and no loans have been taken out since then, so I hope that has been a solid preventative first step. I have advised her to ring Wonga tomorrow and ensure that any account they have using her details is frozen or closed.

I would also like her to involve the police but understandably she's a little embarrassed (but agrees she should do it).

The reason I'm writing this is to ask some advice on a couple of points from you helpful people:

1. Is it likely to be possible to have these payday loans removed from her credit record? Even though they were paid back, I'm nervous that less parasitic lenders might take them as evidence of poor money management.

2. Are the police likely to be able to do anything given the difficulty with getting proof? She closed the Lloyds/TSB account and does not have access to statements. Obviously online transfers make it hard to prove theft but the bank withdrawal time and date for the 2k withdrawal could at least help obtain CCTV if it still exists.

The fact that this scumbag has managed to do this makes me incredibly angry and I want to see if we can get some sort of justice out of this.

Thanks for any advice.

AJG384521

How was she unaware of someone taking out a payday loan using her account? Surely she would notice the money being paid into her account, withdrawn from her account and then taken out by the company.

Kraftskiva

AJG384521 wrote: »

How was she unaware of someone taking out a payday loan using her account? Surely she would notice the money being paid into her account, withdrawn from her account and then taken out by the company.

She uses an account with her Scandinavian bank largely (and still does, though I'm trying to ween her off it!) so it was more a UK backup for safety/convenience at the time and she didn't monitor it that much.

AJG384521

It doesn't make sense that if he had access to her account why he would take out payday loans. Obviously she had money in it/paid into it to pay them back.

Don't think you could get them removed from her credit file, you could put a notice of correction on her file explaining what happened.

Kraftskiva

AJG384521 wrote: »

It doesn't make sense that if he had access to her account why he would take out payday loans. Obviously she had money in it/paid into it to pay them back.

Don't think you could get them removed from her credit file, you could put a notice of correction on her file explaining what happened.

Honestly, I have no idea - I'm just going on the information she's given me. He clearly paid them back so must have deposited cash to do so.

I've never had a payday loan so not sure exactly how the parasites work.

Thanks for the info on the credit file - I think that's the route we'll have to go down, though would this be more effective with a police report/crime number?

Thrugelmir

Sounds a very unlikely tale. As would have been difficult to open an account without providing ID. I doubt the ex looks anything like your girlfriend. If she was running overdrafts perhaps she ran out of money totally . Resulting in the need to take out PD loans. Blaming others is a way of covering ones own embarrassment.

Kraftskiva

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Sounds a very unlikely tale. As would have been difficult to open an account without providing ID. I doubt the ex looks anything like your girlfriend. If she was running overdrafts perhaps she ran out of money totally . Resulting in the need to take out PD loans. Blaming others is a way of covering ones own embarrassment.

Thanks for the comment Thrugelmir.

If you can open a PD loan account online (as you can) and you have access to someone's purse then surely it's not that hard? If ID is needed and you have the person's driving license then what's the PD loan company to know?

Like I say, I've never had a PD loan so please excuse my ignorance.

On the overdraft thing - I don't think that's the case - we've done both Noddle and Experian reports for her accounts and none show a minus balance at any point (I know this only shows at each month point but it makes it unlikely). Plus her parents are always willing to help and they have a very open relationship.

DavidP24

Even if you get the bad credit items taken off they still show on your record but under a different category (victim of fraud) which can be just as bad. It happened to me and took years to sort out before I was able to get credit.