Sister buying buy now pay later goods under my name

ikcdab

enthusiasticsaver said:

ikcdab said:

enthusiasticsaver said:

Are you sure  a DRO is the right way to go?  You need permission from the official receiver and there are charges for administering them.  Have you taken advice as to the best way to deal with your debt?  How much is your  debt (apart from the catalogue) and how much is your income? 

She will not be able to pay the debt as it will be in your name and included under the DRO if it is approved.  If you don't tell anyone then no one should find out but obviously the account will be closed and the debt frozen.   

Thanks for the reply. I haven't been told about any administration charges.  What are they?

Apologies.  I have just checked and the £90 admin fee was removed last April. Who has told you the DRO is the way to go? 

CAB.  We fit all of the criteria and there doesn't appear to be any downside apart from not being able to get credit for the foreseeable future. 

sourcrates

It really does not matter who ran up the debt or under what name, it still gets written off, just like all the other debts in your name, which you don`t appear to have a problem with, so why give this particular debt more attention than it deserves?

If you want to go ahead with the DRO, then under no circumstances mention what you have told us to your intermediary, as that would just complicate matters for you, as far as anyone else is concerned the debt is just another one on the list, its in your name, so you are deemed liable, its your opportunity to rid yourself of it.

There is no fee now for a DRO, and its the intermediary that does all the donkey work, all the insolvency service does is check you haven`t had a DRO in the last 6 years, and then rubber stamp the application, that's essentially it.

After 12 months your debts are written off, no fanfare, no certificate, it just ends.

basketcase

sourcrates said:

It really does not matter who ran up the debt or under what name, it still gets written off, just like all the other debts in your name, which you don`t appear to have a problem with, so why give this particular debt more attention than it deserves?

From the point of view of the debts it doesn't matter, of course.  But I can see why this debt matters more than the others - because it isn't the OP's debt.  Plus it's put a dent in sisterly trust, I'd think. The sister has run up £3200-worth of debt in the OP's name.  She's always paid before, but what if she couldn't this time?  

The questions I'd be asking myself (and I don't expect you to answer, OP!) are:

• why did the sister do this in the first place? 
• Has she used that account before with permission and just thought "Sis won't mind"? 
• in which case, why change the password?
• Why not just open her own account?  

@ikcdab
As @sourcrates says, don't mention it.  As far as anyone else is concerned your name means you owe - even if you didn't initiate the purchases. As it's being written off anyway you don't have to worry about having to pay.

For the future, though, if this were me I'd definitely be speaking to my sister about what she's done.  If she'd go to the trouble of changing the Eaddress, delivery address and password she obviously didn't want the OP to know she was using it.  I'd tell her that she's got away with it this time and has £3200 of goods for free. BUT it's fraud to use somebody else's account in this way.  Even a sister's.  Next time - if there is one - you will go to the police.

Oh - and I'd change all my passwords.  For everything, but especially anything financial!

ManyWays

Everyone here including me is probably making guesses as this sort of thing is very uncommon.

If you dont tell your DRO adviser, the adviser is going to see the debts on your credit record, so that wont work.

If you tell the adviser and dont explain it was your sister and knew nothing about it, the adviser may be concerned about whether payments to the the catalogue have constituted "preference" if you have missed payments to other debts.

If the adviser is happy with the debts being listed in the DRO then its fine unless the lender looks in detail in which case they may report the possible fraud to the DRO team. If the amount was small, the catalogue firm would be very unlikely to look at the details. But £3200 may make someone look, in which case the different address and change of email may alert a problem and the lender may report it to the DRO unit.

Even if it isnt seen as fraud, there may be a question of reckless borrowing if most of the purchases were recent and a DRO restriction order being placed on you. These are rare and you may decide that you dont care anyway. 

If the adviser is happy with you leaving the debts out of the DRO, then the catalogue company may spot the insolvency and cancel the account. They may also see this as a breach of the terms so interest may be added.

Even if the lender doesnt, you have to ask the lender to close the account to stop this happening in future. And that may cause problems for your site if she is only able to reply the current balances if she buys more stuff on the account. Do you know what your sister bought, because 3200 is a large enough amount to wonder if she is actually in very deep financial trouble and buying tech on BNPL in order to sell to raise cash. 

If your sister isnt in major difficulty, then you could suggest she needs to take a loan out to clear the whole account, even if that is expensive.