Mother Fraudulently Opened Credit Cards in Daughter's Name

J_Rod_33

Hi


As the title suggests we have discovered that my mother-in-law has a few years ago opened 2 credit cards in my wife's name, maxed them out and not made payments on them.


We only discovered this after receiving a letter from a debt collection agency asking for payment on accounts that we knew we did not have. It was at this time my wife disclosed to me that 10yrs previous her mother had opened credit accounts in the names of family members and ran them to max and not made payments. On that occasion my wife paid off her mother's debts and she assured her it would not happen again. Giving that there is 'no smoke without fire' we felt this was enough of a coincidence to ask my mother-in-law if she had perhaps opened credit accounts in my wife's name. After denying it for a few hours she finally admitted that she had done it.


We don't know how this would have been possible tho as for the previous 4yrs my wife has lived with me (bank details & electoral roll registered here) and for the 10yrs previous of that she lived with her father who was separated from her mother (again all financial details registered there). But my mother-in-law admitted to having applied using my wife's details but entering in her own address (my wife left that address almost 15yrs ago) - when the credit agreements arrived she has signed acting as my wife and has subsequently received 2 cards.


The main issue we have is that my wife and I are currently in the middle of purchasing our first home as up until now we have privately rented together. We have our formal mortgage offer and missives are due to be signed at the start of next week. We don't want a default appearing on my wife's credit score which can subsequently cause the mortgage provider to pull the mortgage before closing. My wife is obviously a little uneasy about pursuing a criminal/fraud case against her mother - but obviously this could well be the only way we can go in order to rectify the situation. If anyone has any advice or similar circumstances which could help us it would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

grumbler

I'd be surprised if after a few years of missed payments and the debt passed to debt collectors there still are no defaults in the credit history. Normally defaults get reported by the CC company, not by DCA.

Your wife is right. The only way to clear the mess is to report her mother for crime.
That said, she can just try to make it clear to both the DCA and the CC company that she had never applied for the cards and used them and demand her history to be cleared if there are black marks in it. Then it will be up to the DCA and the CC company to find and pursue the culprit if they want. This may or may not result in actions against the mother.

enthusiasticsaver

Report her, that is the only way that this can be resolved especially if she has done it before. This is fraud and the mother needs to learn she cannot do stuff like this. If I were your wife I would be furious!! Speak to the debt collection agency without delay.

J_Rod_33

The last payment made on the account was March 2014 - we have Experian accounts for both of us as we felt this a must before applying for a mortgage and certainly nothing appears on there (yet) - not even any mention of the account - would that be because she hasn't lived (or been registered) at her mum's address since she was about 15? Still don't understand why a CC company would authorize a card for someone when they were not registered at that address.
For the past year and a bit letters have been going to my mother-in-law's asking for payments but she has buried her head and binned them without even informing us of the situation (obviously if known earlier a different course could have been taken).
The issue we have with pursuing her mother for fraud is that my mother-in-law has a history of mental illness and indeed was still receiving care at the time of these CC applications. But ultimately we cannot allow that to be able to cause our home purchase to fall through.

sleepyjones

Wow.
The only thing I can think of and I'm not even knowlegeable on this kinda thing, never mind an expert ... would be that when your wife moved out of that address the electoral roll was never updated (ie your wife never informed them that she was moving, she just started a new "account" at the new address), so presumably she could be registered at both addresses?. If you then don't apply for any credit in the first 3 years at the new address, or have any credit type accounts that will be registered on a Credit File (ie, they generally only ask for your last 3 years address) then there would be no way for the credit agencies to link your wife with that old address ... so she basically also started a new Credit File. This would explain why there's no missed payments on the recent credit report. It doesn't explain how you got a letter from the Debt agency, unless it was delivered to the mother in laws house?.

enthusiasticsaver

You need to speak to the credit card company about this. It probably does not show on your wife's record as the address is different. Difficult to know how it got past the credit scoring though as presumably your wife is not on the electoral roll there? I understand the reluctance to pursue your mum with a history of mental illness but she has got to be stopped from doing things like this. Maybe some sort of protection order? Make the credit card and debt collection agency aware of her mental illness as well as this may ultimately affect what action they take.

J_Rod_33

I'm struggling to understand the half of it too as my wife should never have been on the electoral roll at that address in the first place as she left before the age of 16 (unless of course my mother-in-law registered her on the electoral roll at some point?). She was also registered on the electoral roll and had a mobile phone contract at the addresses we have shared for the past 4 years (which is during the time the application was made). The Debt Collection Agency say they located my wife through the electoral roll to our current address....but then again surely then they should be able to see she hasn't lived at the address where the credit was acquired for almost 15yrs.

enthusiasticsaver

Does your wife use her married name which presumably is different to your mother in law's surname?

J_Rod_33

Yes, she uses my surname (we have been married since March 2014) - the credit cards were applied for in my wife's maiden name and the final payment made on them in the days before our wedding (we think my mother-in-law may have thought by my wife changing her name she no longer needed to make any payments from that point). Her maiden name was also different to the surname of her mother as she reverted to her own maiden name after separating from the father.

enthusiasticsaver

Maybe your mother in law kept your wife's name on the electoral register all these years and the reason there are no defaults showing is because the addresses don't match up with the name. There is no way around this though other to inform the credit card company and debt collection agency. I think I would also be tempted to tell the police in case she has done anything else in your wife's name so they can investigate. Mentally ill or not she must have enough of her faculties to know how all this works to have got away with this for so long.

sleepyjones

Reading up about this a bit the Credit Card companies "seem to" not really be interested in the "That's not my debt, it's Identity Theft" reasoning to try and "duck out" of debt and get it written off, I'm guessing it happens quite a lot ... so you might actually need a police report from them to even consider doing anything.

So it looks like either way you're going to have to either pay off the debt and accept the consequences on the credit file or report it to the police.

I think you might be best going to see the Citizens Advice and properly sit down and discuss what this all could mean, especially in regards to the mother-in-law who could face Jail time.
I think you need to get more professional advice, perhaps, than acting on whatever any of us say because this and whatever course of action you decide to take could/will have far reaching consequences for the family.

EDIT : I'm not saying you're trying to "duck out" of the debt, just that that's what the credit card companies automatically seem to assume.