Friend using my credit card.

But OP, you can't be a 'a day or two late' when repaying money. She might have a direct debit or bill to pay that's due, or perhaps she needs to buy food for her own family.

It was wrong of her to use your card, and she was follish to lend you money she couldn't afford to lose, but I think you need better financial planning. Your company has been running for 6 months, yet you have zero safety net or clear plan of how to repay debts (it's not ideal to be using child maintenance). You need a paid job until your business gets off the ground. And you need a business plan.

Your ‘ friend’s’ behaviour is highly antagonistic. She clearly regrets making the loan, and it sounds like she couldn’t actually afford it, and she now resents you.
Her taking the money by using your card tells you this.
I think you should pay her back the entire sum as quickly as you can - could you get a credit card or formal loan? Borrow from your Dad? Sell possessions?
Obviously you’ll have to cancel the card, and sadly, accept that the friendship is over.
Sorry if I’ve missed this, but did she offer to lend the money in the first place, or was it you persuading her? It’s a lot of money to borrow from a friend, and you should never have accepted it.

If you’re having to wait each month for your ex to pay you money before you can pay your friend £100 back then you maybe need to re think your business!! Even after a couple of weeks off work you should still have £100 in a business account to pay back your loan.

Is your business making no money? Lots wrong here. There should have been a more reliable contingency for repayment then relying on payments from your ex to clear this debt. She's obviously retained your card details to do exactly this sort of thing with, there's no other reason she would need to keep a record of your card details. Either way using those details without your knowledge is fraud and what you should be doing is reporting it and getting the card company to take the money back and cancelling the card. But being you owe her a lot of money it complicates things. There seems to be a lack of boundaries on her part and a lack of a clear plan for repayment on yours. What sort of business are you running that can't find £100 a month? And why can't she afford her phone bill? if she's got £2000 to loan you did she clear herself out by lending it to you?

OP if this is genuine you urgently need financial help, perhaps from Step Change. A single parent who has apparently maxed out her credit card and overdraft and is self employed should not be borrowing from friends to set up a new business and should not be booking a holiday! Your friend was wrong but you can easily avoid it happening again by cancelling the card.

A civil case as OP owes money and has no contractual way of paying- word against word. Police wouldn't be interested and SCC wouldn't take it on as a civil case. If OP "won" the case anyway, what would she "win"? She would just have to pay the "winnings" to her friend, who she owed the money to to start with.

I just can’t get past booking a holiday when you are so broke you have to borrow money off a friend and then can’t feed your family.

This. I would also be making sure not to divulge new card details under any circumstances. Am l the only one who thinks it’s quite disturbing that OP’s friend felt entitled to access her bank account to take the money herself ? I think l would be paying off the loan ASAP and rethinking a friendship with someone who thought this was an acceptable thing to do - especially since OP had messaged to explain the circumstances and that payment would be made the following day. It all sounds haphazard and a bit financially incontinent on both sides.

OP is £100 ahead of the loan repayments (£700 repaid in six months). I agree that she should be paying on time if there is a specific payment date agreed, but l don’t think friend has any reason to think OP won’t repay the loan.

If you report her she will probably demand that you pay back the outstanding amount in full, immediately, as there doesn't seem to be a written agreement. She shouldn't have loaned you the money really. I don't think one should loan money they wouldn't be happy to write off. She's been a good friend. I would cancel the card and get a new one, and make a serious plan to pay her back immediately. Perhaps your parent's can help you settle the loan? I dont think you can be preachy given that you owe her a lot of money.

Get a new card from your bank. This will have different card details and your old card (and associated historical payments which have been set up) will be void

Set up a standing order to repay your friend £100 a month with an end date

This. I’ve seen similar attitudes on MN and l really don’t understand the mindset. OP’s child lives with her and her ex’s payments are part of the household income which supports the child. Do people really expect CM payments to be kept separate and every penny accounted for ?

Please tell me you didn’t buy ‘stock’ for one of these MLM companies

Are you late in paying her back?

I think it's really quite bad of her to just use your credit card details but it must also be frustrating if you owe her money.

Which, re-reading the OP, would seem to be what the friend had.

Agree. I think people are confusing fraud compensation with unauthorised use. OP’s friend has used OP’s card without her permission - the fact that she had the details or how she obtained them is irrelevant.

You are both wrong and the whole situation is a mess

You have let her down by paying late on occasions. Just because you have chosen to overpay sometimes doesn't mean she should be paid late next time.

You not paying her made her not be able to pay a bill. The fact you were paid late by your ex and haven't worked this week is not her problem

She is massively wrong for using your card. I would cancel that card and never let her be in the situation where she can do that again

You both sound like you are struggling financially and doing crappy things as a knock on because of that

My mil just asked me to buy a present for my DC off my phone. She gave me her card to use (while sitting beside me). Transaction went through no problem, no authentication required on her side. And I've never used her card before. So it's not always necessary

What a mess. Neither of you can afford what’s happening here. If you can’t pay her back £100 a month on time, how are you living on your business money? Sounds like she couldn’t afford to give you the money either!

l’m a bit confused by this. I’m with Halifax and Natwest and neither of them use OTP when making online payments. All l need is my bank card details.

https://www.better.org.uk/library/services/community-support/start-up-business

Your local library should have these business development advice hubs, join one and find out how to grow your business. You should split your time between a temp job and business growth.

What's your business? I'm guessing it's an MLM.....

Why didnt you just repay her back instead of booking a hoilday?
She evidently couldnt afford to give you the 2 grand otherwise she wouldnt of been desperate to pay her phone bill. Why did you take a loan off someone whose struggling? Thats a really shitty thing to do.

According to OP the loan was six months ago. £2000 and there’s £1300 left to pay, so OP is ahead by £100 if what she says is correct. And that’s where the problem lies with OP - l get the impression that because she’s overpaid when she can, she feels as though she can be a day or two late with no problem. But equally it sounds as though her friend is relying on OP’s repayments, so it sounds as though she couldn’t really afford to lend the money in the first place.

What friend has done is completely unacceptable and frankly l don’t understand her reasoning because if she took the money from OP’s bank account without telling her, she would have been paid twice had OP not realised before she made the payment.