Unauthorised transactions

Waldemar

Hi Voyager

Yes, that is a good suggestion. I will call my solicitor on Monday and have an informal chat. Might just be easier and less expensive after an informal chat to pay the debt and avoid the whole fraudulent angle despite the fact that is what happened. When all is said and done what would I have to gain / lose from initialising proceedings and then losing all control of the situation and the stress and ramifications that would cause to us all as a family.

SeduLOUs

Waldemar wrote: »

My wife has accepted the need for control of the accounts and to stick to a budget and a basic account with no line of credit. I will have access to all the accounts and will monitor on a fortnightly basis set against a monthly budget.

I have to suggest that I don't think fortnightly is enough, at least at the start, and you should be glancing at your accounts daily or at least every few days until you are confident the timescales can be slowly reduced.

I'd also like to recommend YNAB as a tool for setting out a budget - you can set up categories for spending and allocate how much money you want to spend in each area each month, and it makes reconciling accounts nice and simple (I do mine at least every other day).

Perhaps this is something you and your wife could set up and maintain together? It would probably be helpful to do it as a team as long as she's up to it, and you might find that as part of the process she becomes addicted to NOT spending - I know I did!

jonesMUFCforever

Waldemar can I ask one thing?
You say you did not look at your credit card statements for 6 months - so how were you making the monthly repayment?
If it was by D/D for the minimum amount did you not notice this increasing month on month?

foxtrotoscar_2

Your wife should be paying it back from her earnings...she needs to learn. Sit down with her and get her to agree to repay it over time.

Waldemar

Thanks SeuLous

Yes it has been more regular and agree will need to be whilst everything is sorted out and plans put into action.

Once that is done will be moving to fortnightly and will stick to that for sometime, perhaps weekly would be more prudent. Still better than every 6 months

Don't know about YNAB will take a look as the budgeting as been done with the help of the Step Change Charity which is good as a snapshot tool of where you are now and where you need to be. Probably not so good in terms of managing and monitoring on a ongoing basis.

We will be doing this together as the last think I want to do is come across as some controlling ogre watching her every financial transaction. Although of course to some degree there will be a lot of watching going on. I do have faith that she can become good, perhaps even addicted to clearing the debt and then saving next.

Glad you made it through.

Waldemar

Hi jonesMUFC

Monthly payment was automatic via DD and I was not checking my current accounts either so did not notice. Irresponsible I know and I have learnt my lesson on that one.

Waldemar

Hi foxtrot

Those were my initial thoughts too. However we are a family and I just want all the debts paid off as quickly as possible so that we can start building for the future together.

She has enough to get through in making the adjustments and sticking to them and that alone will be enough for me.

SeduLOUs

I was more of an impulse buyer, not too problematic, but I'd see a healthy bank balance and treat myself to something instead of realising that the money was needed for bills etc and my 'available' disposable money was much less.

The main concept of YNAB is to give all of your money a job. So for example, if you have £500 in your bank account it might be allocated as follows:

£100 for groceries for the next two weeks
£50 for the gas bill
£200 towards the car MOT due next month
£100 for a fancy meal
£50 for the phone bill

If I then want to go on a clothes shopping spree I know I can't unless I cancel the fancy meal, eat beans on toast for a week or risk not being able to get my car through it's MOT. It's a whole different perspective.

Anyway, don't want to go on about it - there's a whole thread about it on here if you want to look into it: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5027025
The software has a 30 day free trial and then can be bought for £30.

foxtrotoscar_2

Waldemar wrote: »

Hi foxtrot

Those were my initial thoughts too. However we are a family and I just want all the debts paid off as quickly as possible so that we can start building for the future together.

She has enough to get through in making the adjustments and sticking to them and that alone will be enough for me.

Yes get them paid off ASAP as a family by all means...but make sure she pays it back to the family and understands that there are consequences to out of control spending both in the past and the future.

boobbby

I recently used my credit card to pay for advance line rental with BT. Immediately after giving details of my credit card over the phone it was being used to purchase items from various shops. This is the one and only time I used that particular card so it was obvious that a person or a system from BT was to blame for its fraudulent use. BT refuse to accept liability