Is there any hope?

HopeAndDriftWood

I've posted here before, a while back, about my family. Essentially, I'm estranged from my parents, and my mum has severe debt issues, along with pretty serious MH issues.

When I turned 17, I found that my mum had been using a bank account with an overdraft in my name. I visited the local branch that she'd been using, and Barclays said they'd let her because they "knew" her, but closed the account because I should never have been able to get credit at 17.

Over the years, she's taken out phone contracts, catalogues, student accounts with overdrafts. My credit file is in tatters because of this. Some have closed the accounts when I've explained, some have refused - Littlewoods sold a £7,000 debt to Lowells, claiming that they'd investigated but didn't believe it was fraud. The Co-Op said my birth certificate was presented on account opening so unless I had evidence, they couldn't help.

I did report this to Action Fraud, but they didn't take action.

The new development is that a few weeks ago, another estranged family member got in touch to explain that my mum has emigrated, and whilst emptying the house, they'd found evidence that my mum was using my name for accounts. I don't know what evidence, or which accounts. I've told the police, but they've said I have to phone 101 to get a visit booked. I don't have the evidence - I'd rather not meet my family for fear of violence - but I do have the messages about it, so theoretically, the police could collect it on my behalf?

My credit file is a state, there's so many addresses on it that I can't get rid of, my current address shows as a "linked address" even though I'm on the ER here, there's lots of defaulted accounts. I can't get credit at all, so a mortgage/car is out of the question, and they'd be life changing for me. I also work in finance and live in fear of them finding out.

Any advice on what I should do? Is it worth getting the police involved - will it make any difference to my credit file?

fermi

Police are unlikely to do much, but you should probably go through the motions and get some documentary evidence from them that at least that you've tried.

Then go through the complaints procedure with each lender, saying that unless they take the accounts off your credit file then you will be taking them to the FOS and ICO.

Experian_company_representative

Hi SaucySecrets,

I'm sorry to hear of all the problems you're having on your credit report due to your mother.

I would advise you to contact Action Fraud with the new information you have and see what they can do to help as you stated they may be able to collect the evidence on your behalf.

In regards to your credit report I would suggest contacting the credit reference agency you used to raise the accounts and incorrect data with their fraud department.

If you have obtained a copy of your Experian credit report then please call our customer service team on:
0344 481 0800 * or 0800 013 88 88

Lines are open Mon - Fri 8am - 7pm Sat 8am - 4pm
* Calls to 0344 numbers are charged at the national UK landline rate, and are usually inclusive of monthly phone contract package. 0800 numbers are free to call from UK landlines and mobiles but calls from business mobile phones may be chargeable. Calls may be recorded for training and monitoring purposes.

We can then raise with our Victims of Fraud team.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Emma

Stevie_Palimo

Experian_company_representative wrote: »

Hi SaucySecrets,

I'm sorry to hear of all the problems you're having on your credit report due to your mother.

I would advise you to contact Action Fraud with the new information you have and see what they can do to help as you stated they may be able to collect the evidence on your behalf.

In regards to your credit report I would suggest contacting the credit reference agency you used to raise the accounts and incorrect data with their fraud department.

If you have obtained a copy of your Experian credit report then please call our customer service team on:
0344 481 0800 * or 0800 013 88 88

Lines are open Mon - Fri 8am - 7pm Sat 8am - 4pm
* Calls to 0344 numbers are charged at the national UK landline rate, and are usually inclusive of monthly phone contract package. 0800 numbers are free to call from UK landlines and mobiles but calls from business mobile phones may be chargeable. Calls may be recorded for training and monitoring purposes.

We can then raise with our Victims of Fraud team.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Emma

From my past history having dealt with Action Fraud a while ago I must say that they are completely useless and seem to be a department set up to syphon off money from the tax payer for no real reason, They only cross the i's and t's on paperwork and really do not do anything for anyone other than take a wage each for sitting at a pc.

As for the credit reference agencies well they about as much use as Action fraud and the only real reason to look on the free searches is to see what else the OP's mother may have taken out as a high credit rating means nada to be frank.

Candyapple

Firstly, you should obtain copies all of 3 of your credit reports from Experian, Equifax and Call Credit.

That will show you what accounts have been taken out in your name and whether they are active, defaulted, closed etc. This means you won't need to contact your family to confirm what 'accounts' they were referring to as it will all be in your credit files.

Next you need to go through each report and mark off which ones are not yours / were opened fraudulently and then go about contacting each lender and explaining the situation. They will probably request a crime reference number, in which case I would make a trip to the local police station instead of Action Fraud to see what they say.

Next you want to register yourself on the CIFAS protective register to prevent your mum or anyone else using your details to apply for credit in the future.

https://www.cifas.org.uk/pr_for_individuals