Wife took out credit in my name and her own bank account

[Deleted User]

Ubique said:

it just seems to me that as long as they have a name and an account number they put it through. Doesn't sit right with me.

It doesn't need to sit right with you. It's perfectly legal for payments to be made from someone else's account. Just as you could pay for your son's shopping at Tesco.

The breach is in the wife committing fraud, not in her making payments from her own account.

GrumpyDil

And to reiterate a previous comment you cannot sort this out for your son. He needs to deal with it. 

Ubique

Thank you for your comment all be it a little negative. I agree in principle that he should sort it out himself. I have 3 sons all grown up and I have helped them all to understand the financial pit falls that are disguised as have it all now pay later etc. It's how creditors make their money and programme you into a life of servitude to them and the credit rating system devised by them. If I can help my son understand this then as a parent, regardless of the age of my son, I will help him to know what is good and what is not in life. I have helped and advised all three of my sons and they are doing well.... and I'm still helping them when they ask....

Sandtree

Ubique said:

He's only just found out that 2 accounts exist in his name only. Is there a responsibility by the creditors to show due diligence and actually check who's name the account is in...?

Creditors have to do KYC checks to validate the person applying is who they say they are but these are easy for a spouse or such to pass as they will know things like address history, salary etc.

As to the account making the payments, they will only care that the holder of that account has given permission beyond that it could be their account holder, their spouses, fathers, sugar daddy, random generous guy down the road etc. As long as nothing illegal is going on then anyone can pay anyone else's bills if they so desire.

pbartlett

For the sake of absolute clarity your son's wife has committed fraud which is a criminal offence as she has presumably signed the loan application declaring everything above is true etc etc

Your son (or indeed anyone else who has a loan fraudulently taken out on their name) is absolutely not responsible for the debt - all they have to do is contact the company involved and explain that the debt application was fraudulent.

wiseonesomeofthetime

pbartlett said:

For the sake of absolute clarity your son's wife has committed fraud which is a criminal offence as she has presumably signed the loan application declaring everything above is true etc etc

Your son (or indeed anyone else who has a loan fraudulently taken out on their name) is absolutely not responsible for the debt - all they have to do is contact the company involved and explain that the debt application was fraudulent.

Agreed.

But they will insist on a police crime number, or Action Fraud incident number, and that is when the domestic problems will no doubt start. 

Refusal to report to either of those parties, may lead the credit account provider to consider that it was not the fraud claimed.

HampshireH

Ubique said:

Thanks for all your comments they are appreciated. He works away (RAF) and is not home on a regular basis but due to COVID.he has been stuck at home and of course he received the mail as he was there and this was the first time he was aware of the use of his name on the accounts. I get the comments that he may well be responsible for the debt but if it is that easy to put someone's name on an agreement with their own bank account free living comes to mind... 

I don't wish to sound rude but;

* Your son is old enough to decide to get married

* Your son is old enough and presumably switched on enough to be in the RAF

He is a grown up, married man.

Your son really shouldn't need Daddy sorting out his bills or interferring in his marriage - which this will of course amount to.

He needs to check his credit files and sort it out himself. If you have, as you say made your son's financially aware then I'm sure he has the know-how & common sense to make a few phone calls /run a credit report, check there are no more and have a conversation with his wife.

It does suggest they have issues (perhaps financial) though if she is taking out finance in his name and without his knowledge. Again it's not your marriage.

Also..... You have said you will sort this out but your original post implied neither of you were sure if he was responsible or not. Are you in any better position to be taking over and acting on his behalf?

I can't see how your involvement will help him. But I can see how it could cause problems for him.

Apologies if this sounds harsh but this really isn't for you to do.

tripled

HampshireH said:

Ubique said:

Thanks for all your comments they are appreciated. He works away (RAF) and is not home on a regular basis but due to COVID.he has been stuck at home and of course he received the mail as he was there and this was the first time he was aware of the use of his name on the accounts. I get the comments that he may well be responsible for the debt but if it is that easy to put someone's name on an agreement with their own bank account free living comes to mind... 

I don't wish to sound rude but;

* Your son is old enough to decide to get married

* Your son is old enough and presumably switched on enough to be in the RAF

He is a grown up, married man.

Your son really shouldn't need Daddy sorting out his bills or interferring in his marriage - which this will of course amount to.

He needs to check his credit files and sort it out himself. If you have, as you say made your son's financially aware then I'm sure he has the know-how & common sense to make a few phone calls /run a credit report, check there are no more and have a conversation with his wife.

It does suggest they have issues (perhaps financial) though if she is taking out finance in his name and without his knowledge. Again it's not your marriage.

Also..... You have said you will sort this out but your original post implied neither of you were sure if he was responsible or not. Are you in any better position to be taking over and acting on his behalf?

I can't see how your involvement will help him. But I can see how it could cause problems for him.

Apologies if this sounds harsh but this really isn't for you to do.

What's wrong with someone asking a parent, friend, lover or brother for advice? Or even, dare I say it, a forum?

[Deleted User]

Ubique said:

I will be writing to the companies and asking those questions ... it just seems to me that as long as they have a name and an account number they put it through. Doesn't sit right with me. Of course I am a concerned Dad and I will get this sorted out for him.

At the end of the day, companies assume 99.99% of people are honest and if an application is done with all the right security checks (it absolutely will not just be name and account number), why would they think it was fraudulent? As far as they are concerned, your son took out the credit and (sensibly) asked his wife to make the payments so if anything unexpected happened like an emergency deployment, there would be no risk of missing payments. He could have transferred the money monthly from his account and the firm wouldn't see that.

You can write, he can write, it doesn't matter (though they won't deal with you so I wouldn't bother doing it yourself) - it's a simple, binary option:
1) He reports her for fraud, she gets arrested and charged and the companies take the debt off him and put it on her
2) He pays the debt off, it stays in his name, wife gets away with it

There is no option 3 of company accepts fraud, writes debt off, nobody pays anything, nobody gets in trouble - it's a choice of either dealing with it formally and causing a rift in the marriage or sucking it up and dealing with it. Personally I wouldn't stay married to someone who commits fraud in my name and lies about it, I wonder what else she's hiding?

Sandtree

pbartlett said:

For the sake of absolute clarity your son's wife has committed fraud which is a criminal offence as she has presumably signed the loan application declaring everything above is true etc etc

Your son (or indeed anyone else who has a loan fraudulently taken out on their name) is absolutely not responsible for the debt - all they have to do is contact the company involved and explain that the debt application was fraudulent.

And if its a criminal offence then it needs to get reported to the Police. If you report it to the police and dont withdraw the complaint etc (or otherwise imped the investigation) then the bank will not hold you liable (assuming the police report doesnt show that they think you lied etc).

In the world of insurance we fairly often come across kids that take their parents car and drive it uninsured and then crash. If the policyholder consented to them taking it then we have a legal right to recover the losses paid to the other party from either the parent (our policyholder) or the kid (the driver) and this is a breach of the T&Cs of the policy and may well result in it being terminated plus no cover for their own vehicle. If however the kid didnt have permission its theft, we have to cover the damage to both vehicles and only have a right of recovery against the kid and no breach of contract etc.

The problem is that parents say its theft but dont want to report it to the police yet want us to treat it as theft... certainly in my world we will only believe the criminal accusation if its been made to the police.