Parent took out a credit card without my knowledge or consent

bth111

Hi everyone, I'd appreciate some advice please.

I found out a year or so ago that one of my parents took out a credit card in my name using my childhood address and racked up hundreds of pounds worth of unpaid debt. I confronted them and managed to get the log-in details for the credit card.

Being so shocked at the situation all I've done since then is log in to the account and pay the monthly figure myself because I don't want to get my parent into trouble and know that they can't pay the bill. The card still has a large outstanding balance as I also can't afford to clear the card in one go.

I now realise this situation is not fair on me, but I wouldn't want to involve the police and destroy my relationship my family. Has anyone else faced a similar situation? Is there any way this situation can be resolved?

elsien

Not what you want to hear but I suspect your options are paying it yourself, report them for fraud or let them trash your credit record when they can't pay it.
What about the other parent - are they still with the fraudster parent, and could they help you tackle things if they knew? I suspect if your parent was this desperate they may have other debts you don't know about as well and may need more help than you can offer on your own.
The point will come when they have to take responsibility for their own actions, regardless. They can't be bailed out forever. Are you able to have a conversation with them about the bigger picture?

Voyager2002

There have been a few posts like this in the past...

Is there any chance that the parent was or is not of sound mind? If someone committed fraud but did not understand what they were doing then there would be no question of criminal charges and so you would not need to feel guilty about reporting it. Otherwise, any report about what happened would be likely to lead to some negative consequences for the fraudster responsible. And unless the fraud is reported the card company, quite reasonably, will expect you to pay off the debt.

jonesMUFCforever

............On the other hand a first time poster could have applied for a card and then tried to blame the family ...........when the application was processed for example how would the chilhood address have passed the credit score etc etc - spiky hair danish IMO.

Consumerist

If you have decided to accept the debt as your own without reporting the fraud then probably your best bet, if you have a reasonable credit record, is to apply for a credit card with a 0% Balance Transfer facility, transfer the debt to the new card and repay it over a period.

Janetta

Hello bth111,

Having read your post, I'm so sorry you are having to deal with this.

You have choices:

What your parents did was wrong & is fraud, using your details to obtain monies. You report them to the police, inform the company & await their response.

Or

you sit with your parents and get some sort of payment set up to pay you each month to at least meet the minimum payment.

Or

do nothing, stress your self to high heaven, ruined credit score which could impact your future etc

The realities are - they need to understand they have a responsibility to pay the monies back & they did wrong. You are going to have the hard talk with them regardless of them being your parents.

In the meantime you could write to the company and ask if they will freeze any interest & allow you extend the pay back period, as you/ they are struggling. Your parents need to demonstrate to you their income & expenditure, anything they can sell.

This is grossly unfair to you,life is hard, you just dont need this additional stress. Whilst they just continue on.

hope this helps hugs for you

jonesMUFCforever

IMO this did not happen - think about it - you put down a fake address (childhood address) 1 - it would not match on electoral role 2 if by any chance it had gone through then the card would have gone to the old address - how would they have got it to spend?

eDicky

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

IMO this did not happen - think about it - you put down a fake address (childhood address) 1 - it would not match on electoral role 2 if by any chance it had gone through then the card would have gone to the old address - how would they have got it to spend?

I assumed that OP's childhood address is still the parents' current address. Cards can be successfully applied for without necessarily being on the electoral roll.

enthusiasticsaver

Have you run a credit check on Noddle to make sure it is just one credit card?


I can understand you not wanting to get your parents in trouble but what they did IMHO is unforgiveable to their own child. Do they admit it is wrong or show any remorse? How can you be convinced they won't do it again and trash your credit record ruining your chances of getting mortgages, advantageous rates on credit cards/loans etc.


If you are adamant that you do not want to ruin your relationship I would be very careful about regularly checking your credit record and not giving them any information about your finances as they obviously cannot be trusted.

chattychappy

It is often said in situations like this that the "victim" must either pay off the debt themselves or report the matter to the CC and the police which could get the perpetrator into trouble for fraud. Certainly it's an offence (probably a series of offences in this case).

But I would be interested to know in how many cases such as this the police really do get involved.

Incidentally, technically the victim is the CC, not the OP. Legally the OP is not responsible for unauthorised transactions - or indeed the contract to get the card in the first place. The OP doesn't need to involve the police - they can tell the CC that this account is nothing to do with them. There might be some issues as to whether they are believed, but I wonder if the CC would call the police. Certainly if the CC told the OP to involve the police then the OP would be in their rights to refuse.

Given the OP has now "adopted" the account in some way, things are muddied a little.

TheBanker

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Have you run a credit check on Noddle to make sure it is just one credit card?

I would check all three CRAs just to be sure. And keep checking on a regular basis.

I would also look into setting up Royal Mail redirection to intercept any more post coming to the childhood address.