Under-age debt

coral

When I was 16 i applied for an o2 contract and a capital one credit card through boredom on the internet one night,using the year 1984, mine is 1986, all other details were right (name address etc). Much to my suprise got offered both, the capital one card with a £2,500 limit. I never really used it for a year, until i got into a relationship with someone a lot older and started to spend to impress.

When I was 17 I then applied for an RBS card and a Barclaycard both with 0% deals to transfer over to. I was accepted for both and so held 3 credit cards which combined with my capital one limit now at 4k, i had over 7k worth of credit, when i wasnt even 18.

Due to further events & the horrific interest (29.9% on 4k!) i ended up maxing out all 3, so borrowed 5k from a partner to pay the capital one & barclaycard off, just keeping 2k balance on the RBS @ 7.9% for life. I kept the other two clear until the last few months where I have been out of work & paying rent on two properties (long story...) so am currently 5.5k in debt on the credit cards again with a £500 O/D.

Now i'm 18 & with a second job I can just about afford to service these debts & although I understand that I spent the money, is there any blame to be layed at the feet of the card companies, or was I the one commiting fraud?

Thoughts appreciated!!

Turning_into_scrooge

Hi Coral

I would get some legal advise here if i was you. Either find a solicitor or go to CAB who can get you a meeting with a solicitor free. Do it as soon as possible. Also if you give either CCCS or National debt line a ring they may be able to advise you on this as well. You'll find the numbers at the top of the board. https://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk and https://www.cccs.co.uk. Hope this helps

Ember999

coral wrote:

When I was 16 i applied for an o2 contract and a capital one credit card through boredom on the internet one night,using the DOB 07/09/1984, mine is 07/09/1986, all other details were right (name address etc). Much to my suprise got offered both, the capital one card with a £2,500 limit. I never really used it for a year, until i got into a relationship with someone a lot older and started to spend to impress.

When I was 17 I then applied for an RBS card and a Barclaycard both with 0% deals to transfer over to. I was accepted for both and so held 3 credit cards which combined with my capital one limit now at 4k, i had over 7k worth of credit, when i wasnt even 18.

Due to further events & the horrific interest (29.9% on 4k!) i ended up maxing out all 3, so borrowed 5k from a partner to pay the capital one & barclaycard off, just keeping 2k balance on the RBS @ 7.9% for life. I kept the other two clear until the last few months where I have been out of work & paying rent on two properties (long story...) so am currently 5.5k in debt on the credit cards again with a £500 O/D.

Now i'm 18 & with a second job I can just about afford to service these debts & although I understand that I spent the money, is there any blame to be layed at the feet of the card companies, or was I the one commiting fraud?

Thoughts appreciated!!

You commited Fraud sweetheart, Fraud with a Captial F. Quite serious, Money obtained by Deception as you lied about your age on the application and made further false applications, again telling lies about your age. The card company are not to blame, though how you got away with it I will never understand!

matrix999

As Ember999 has said this is Fraud!!!

You obtained Credit by deception and in the eyes of the law this is very serious as you gave false information on a credit application form which it states clearly you must not do.

I would pay whatever you owe by getting another loan or they C/C firm may take legal action against you!

delboypass

.....FRAUD.....ALERT.....
Think you made a bit of a mistake here. Read the small print on the bottom of the forms you signed.
Pay what you owe now your of legal age and hopefully no-one finds out.
Companys may take the hit for not correctly doing their homework though.
Just shows how easy it is to get credit lol

BWZN93

There is old case law that suggests that where a minor has entered into a credit agreement through fraud, then if the debt is classed as being for the purpose of essential items for a person to live, then the debt cannot be claimed back.

Im hazy on the details, but the case went something like: A boarding student went and got some school shirts on credit with a local merchant, and didnt pay. I cant remember if the shirts were classed as this type of debt, but I have a feeling it wasnt, but there was another case of a child obtaining food on credit, and that was.

These cases are old though, and would probably have little relevance to credit laws today, given that the credit was credit card, was more than a simple name and address job - it meant actively lying about your age, and the fact that this is not a simple error.

If you were to disclose your real age and tell the companies that you were a minor when you obtained this, im pretty sure they would demand every penny back right there and then, and institute criminal proceedings against you for obtaining money through deception, and fraud, which could mean a big fine, or a spell in prison, although given your age and if you dont already have a record, you would be more likely to get the fine and a criminal record.

The credit card company would only be liable under rules from the FSA and associated credit laws, and would be cleared if they could prove they took reasonable care in your application, i.e credit checking you properly, etc etc. They wouldnt face criminal charges in the same way that you would.

I appreciate that all this will seem a little scary, but please dont panic or do anything silly, like get another card or a loan. Please, find out all the debts you have, find out exactly how much is left to pay, what the apr's etc are, and sort out a budget. Work out what you can pay and do it, others on here will suggest ways of paying it off quicker, by snowballing and stuff. Then you are in a better position to get the debts paid, and avoiding trouble. Are you a student or working? Also, stop paying two lots of rent, one of those could be paying off the debt, and could cut the length of time it takes to repay considerably.

If I may ask, (which you may feel free to ignore if you wish) I wonder why you were bored and did this? Is there any other problems that need addressing (and I dont say this with sarcasm, I just wonder what happened initially)? Do your parents know what is going on?

Then what you need to do is keep on a strict budget regardless of your peers etc - this needs to be paid off, and then you can learn from this and hopefully never repeat debt - it is so much worse than not being able to keep up with the joneses, and can destroy your life. You can get through this, you just need to focus on your life, what you need to do to get out of this, and you will come out the other side stronger, and having learned a lot.

I wish you luck,

Jo xx

ceegee

I reckon the blame lies with both parties although I cannot decide about the proportions! :think: True, the money was fraudulently obtained, but what checks did the credit card company carry out regarding the applicant's identity and income? Did they just take the OP's word for everything?

I don't feel that the current level of indebtedness in this country can be blamed on just the consumer or just the suppliers of credit, it has to lie with both, plus of course, those who jump on the bandwagon such as advertisers.

I would be very interested to know what proportion of the adult population of this country has debt, other than a mortgage. We are frequently told the amount of debt the population is in, as a whole, but I cannot recall ever having seen figures regarding the number of people who have debts (ex mortgage).

Does anyone have the answer, please? :question:

ta very much

ceegee

coral

thanks jw1096 for that useful post.

I am aware that I commited fraud, and am not looking of ways to get out of paying, ive had these cards for years, pay them on time and have shuffled round the balances to get them on decent rates and plan on paying them of ASAP and getting rid of them, though thats gonna take about 2 years. I do not feel that the companies are suddenly going to realise that I was under 18 when I got the credit, though that obviously is a big worry, I do not have a way of borrowing any more to pay these debts off.
My parents aren't aware, they leave me to my own devices in these matters, I work full time so its not like they are supporting me. I moved out of home in September, though I have now moved back in with my dad to save some money, but unfortunatly our landlord is selling my previous property & under the terms of the contract I am liable for rent until he is happy for me to stop paying (when its sold!)

I have learnt a lot in the last few months from this experience and have cut everything down to the essentials, which is a horrible thing to be doing when you are just 18!

What I was looking for really is if anyone had ever heard of anything like this before, or had an any experience from a legal point of view?

thanks for your replies

Dammam

I think you may have had a better legal defence if you obtained AND used these cards when you were under age. However, you've continued to spend on the fraudulently obtained card when OVER the legal age - I'm guessing that this would be enough to convict you - spending money you know to have been obtained fraudulently.

If you can't pay, I would go back to the issuer, confess all and ask for reasonable terms to pay off your debt. Your ONLY trump card is that the issuers wouldn't want the publicity that giving credit to a 16 year old would bring.

Nickynoo1

Surely the c/c companies hold some responsibility here. if not it's a bit scary that someone still at school (theoreticaly) can obtain credit. I agree that if you were still under age you might be in a better position, but I would still go to CAB to see what they advise.

C./C companies must start behaving responsibly and checking people can afford to repay. And to give a credit limit of £2,500 on a first card seems a little stupid. What income proof did you provide?? TBH if it was someone in my family (younger nephew or son) i would be going mad at the credit companies, if they didn't pay where would the debt lie...at the parents doorstep?? or would c/c companies just write it off as their own mistake.

Just my opinion, but the companies are sneeky little buggers

Nickynoo1

TimC

ceegee wrote:

I would be very interested to know what proportion of the adult population of this country has debt, other than a mortgage. We are frequently told the amount of debt the population is in, as a whole, but I cannot recall ever having seen figures regarding the number of people who have debts (ex mortgage).

Does anyone have the answer, please? :question:

I don't have the answer ceegee - but it would be very interesting to know, along with the figures for the amount of credit card accounts that are not settled in full every month, those where only the minimum payment is made, those that are in default and the total amount of credit outstanding for each grouping. (These would be skewed by stoozing debt I guess).
The consumer debt figures that are published include the debt that is being managed - so whilst the £1 trillion figure grabs headlines further data would be interesting.

I did find this which states average non-mortgage debt is £7,694 per household and that two-thirds of adults have credit cards - on any given day nearly all of those would have some sort of borrowing on one or more cards and would be counted as being in debt - irrespective of whether they pay it off in full every month.