Being chased for a debt - Identity theft

NotMyDebt87

Evening all, first post so apologies if this isn't in the right place!

So, a little bit of background before I begin, I was with an ex-partner for just under 15 years, in 2016 whilst living at my parents I was in bed after doing a night shift when a couple of bailiffs knocked on the door to repossess my car, unbeknown to me my partner had changed the log book into her name & taken out a logbook loan & not paid any of the monthly repayments, hence the repossession. Thankfully, after a couple of months, I got the car back after much to-ing & fro-ing. After a few weeks of arguments & apologies we continued in our relationship with her promising she would change & not make anymore mistakes with money & not take things out behind my back or in my name. Also in this time I had found out she had taken out pay day loans & credit cards in my name from her mum & dads address. Anyway, we eventually ended up moving in with each other just before Xmas that year. The next 2 & a half years consisted of her continuing to take out loans & credit cards without me knowing until letters started to appear through the door. I know what everyone reading this is going to think "christ, how stupid can you be" I know how stupid I was & how ridiculous it was for me not to put a stop to it by finishing with her long before I did. Anyway, I eventually finished with her in November of 2019 & moved into my sisters house temporarily. Since then I have done my best to improve my credit report by disputing everything that I know is not mine. I ended up with roughly £10,000-£15,000 worth of debt, & a ccj (which leaves my credit report at the end of May this year). My credit score has improved over the last couple of years & i am now with a new partner who is very supportive about the whole thing but we are now looking to buy a house of our own in the next 12 months, hopefully! I am just coming to the end of this long cycle & have one debt left outstanding, which is the whole point of the post.

So, my ex took out a credit card with Capital One in April 2018, she completed the application online & made it in the address we both lived in at the time, I never received any correspondence with regards to this application, texts, phonecalls, emails, or letters. So my guess is she used her contact details, & at the time she was unemployed so would have more chance of getting to any letters from them than I would have. I believe once the application was approved she changed the address to her mum & dads again. The first I found out about this debt was roughly a year ago when I received a letter at my sisters address from Lowell indicating I had this debt outstanding. I went through the whole process of asking them for proof that it was my debt & that I had no knowledge of it & that i believe it is a case of Identity Theft. Their appointed solicitors have also got involved & have gone through the whole threat of court action.

They have come back to me with a copy of the agreement between "me" & capital one, which again, have never seen until they sent me it. I continue to argue that i never took out this credit card, but they are now asking for proof that I didn't take it out!? Which I find abit odd!? How am I supposed to prove it wasn't me!? In their last response to me they also said "There was an authorised third party on the account however, the original creditor was unable to confirm the details" if anyone could shed some light on this aswell please because I don't know what that means!?

I have reported the matter to action fraud & have a reference number ready to give them when they next respond to me. I have gotten in touch with citizens advice but their response was automated & just gave me advice about debt, not necessarily Identity Theft. So right now I am at abit of a loss as to what to do. I don't feel like they are taking my claim of Identity Theft seriously & tbh i really don't want to have to pay for a solicitor to get involved.

The money they are asking for is £1009.

Does anyone have any advice as to what I should do next?

If there is anything that I may have missed out or needs any more explaining please let me know & i'll do my best to fill you in!

Cheers in advance

fatbelly

You have done everything you need to do.

It's Lowell who have to decide what to do next - either start a court claim against you or get their money back from  who they bought it from.

Have Lowell told you what the default date on this account was?

NotMyDebt87

Thanks for the response fatbelly,

So the default date is Nov 2018, which I know means I have another year & a half (or so) before it disappears from my credit record, but I need it gone before then really because as stated above me & my partner are looking at buying a house in the next 12 months or so.

I have been searching the internet for advice & I think one of the next steps I need to take is writing a complaint to Lowell & possibly capital one, before then also making a complaint to the financial ombudsman if I get nowhere with that

NotMyDebt87

Also, just to add to this I also had a credit card in my name which she also opened with Barclaycard, I managed to speak to Barclaycard before they sold it on to anyone else & it has been removed from my credit file since the last time I checked. I haven't had a response from them as yet to say what their findings were, but I explained everything to them the same as I have done to Lowell. I'm hoping it won't reappear because it helped my score jump up abit, but i'm not taking anything for granted just incase they've removed it whilst their investigation takes place.

fatbelly

You can complain to Lowell, wait 8 weeks or until their final response, then refer that to the Ombudsman.

If they don't remove the default, then it will have an effect on your mortgage applications so it's not ideal. But it will not stop you from getting one.

The other option is to wait til Nov next year

NotMyDebt87

Thanks fatbelly, I don't really want to wait until next November for it to just drop off, & with the ccj I have disappearing in May i'drather get this one last black mark out of the way before we look at applying for a mortgage

I forgot to mention aswell that I've sent an email/report to Experian's "Victim of Fraud support team" as i've seen a few people have recommended that, so i'm hoping to hear from them early next week.

I'm confident that i'll get it removed, its just frustrating how long it takes

enthusiasticsaver

It sounds like you are doing all you can and writing to the credit reference agency and following their procedures sounds like a good call.  Action fraud are the agency you really need to deal with so if you have contacted them there seems very little else you can do.  Frustrating though and I wonder what the repercussions will be for your ex.  Hopefully she gets a criminal record.  

NotMyDebt87

I've had an email back from Experian, just a standard "we need these details off you before we can discuss this any further", so I've responded to that, just abit more waiting now

In all honesty, I'd be surprised if anything happened to my ex, all bar this last debt that she so kindly sorted for me have fallen from my credit file & even if it is possible to get some sort of Justice for it, she just isn't worth my time or effort, she is thankfully well in my past now & I just want this last little piece gone so I can enjoy my debt free life with my new partner.

NotMyDebt87

Just an update on this, I have now checked all 3 credit agencies, & I cannot see this debt on the experian one or the Equifax one. Regardless, I know it's there somewhere!

Anyway, Experian have come back to me & said that they have contacted Lowell & that Lowell won't be removing it from my file & that I need to speak to them first (despite already going through everything with them). I have since rang Lowell & they have said that because the matter is currently with their appointed solicitors, Overdales, I need to get in touch with them 🙄 I have been waiting for a response from Overdales for over a month now, so I plan to ring them (again) on Tuesday when I am off work, see what they have to say & then I will start the complaints process.

Is there a letter template on here that would be good to use or is it best to just write up my own from scratch?

Also, just as a side matter, i've noticed on my Experian & Equifax reports that other certain accounts aren't showing, I have a credit card that doesn't appear on one of them & I'm pretty sure my phone contract isn't there either, is this a bad thing or something I should be worried about? & one more thing, I have Studio & Littlewoods accounts that I use very, very rarely, they we opened in the hope of helping build my credit score, is it worth keeping these accounts open despite the lack of use with them (Littlewoods more than Studio) or should I just close them as it could be detrimental in the long run?

fatbelly

The pattern for disputing a credit file entry is that you complain to the debt owner (so in this case Lowell) in writing.

You wait 8 weeks and if you have not had a satisfactory response you can then refer it to FOS and/or ICO.

No need to bother with the credit agency or the creditor's agent - that's just going round the houses for no reason.

In your case you've confirmed that this doesn't appear on Equifax or Experian (It's either there or it's not) so it's unlikely to affect a mortgage application. 

NotMyDebt87

fatbelly said:

The pattern for disputing a credit file entry is that you complain to the debt owner (so in this case Lowell) in writing.

You wait 8 weeks and if you have not had a satisfactory response you can then refer it to FOS and/or ICO.

No need to bother with the credit agency or the creditor's agent - that's just going round the houses for no reason.

In your case you've confirmed that this doesn't appear on Equifax or Experian (It's either there or it's not) so it's unlikely to affect a mortgage application. 

Thanks for the swift reply fatbelly, any advice on what I should include in my letter?

Yeah I certainly couldn't see it on either of those, but it is most definitely on my Transunion report, but then on the other side of the coin, the Barclaycard account I mentioned earlier in the post (another I had disputed) is no longer on my Transunion report, but still shows on the other 2 (the last time these were updated appear to be before I last spoke to Barclaycard though), it's all very confusing why can't they all just show the same information!? 🤦‍♂️😅