To be wary of making any further payments?

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I've been very stupid by not keeping a log of everything and am now in a real pickle.

A friend allowed me to purchase items on a catalogue in her name. This was various items over 12 months. I was not the only person, which means the payments made monthly onto the catalogue were for various peoples orders.

I stupidly didn't keep a record of what was bought and what was paid back.

I've asked a few times now for her to send me information of the total cost, along with payments made towards that. She keeps saying she will do this, but never does.

She's not messaging me up to 10 times a day saying I need to pay at least 100 per month because I owe her over 2k.

Looking at my bank statements I have already paid back over 1k.

I ordered clothing, kids Xmas presents last year, a smart watch, laptop.

Am I Being a terrible person to not want to keep putting money into her bank without seeing proof of how much I owe at least?

I'm worried that I'll end up paying money back indefinitely even after clearing the balance.

I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to buy things on the catalogue, but I just want a statement or something to show where I'm up to.

I now feel harassed and stressed by the constant texts. Should I just put more money into her bank?

@GoldLeafTree it was a pre paid bank card.

I think you need to look at your boundaries with people. So, she was your childminder but lent you money and let you order things on her credit. Her husband is threatening. Is your child still under their care? You gave her a pre paid card to use, was this as a thank you or part of the payment.
I think if you call Very and ask for some kind of proof of everything sent to your address, was it your name or hers on the parcels? Tell them you thought she was an agent. CAB may be able to be the in between person.
A few months of trying to regain good credit is a start but you need to sort this as soon as possible. She isn’t going to provide you with anything, you need to be proactive in finding the solution. It’s really hard to know who is taking the piss here but you’ve both been pretty foolish.

I think if you call Very and ask for some kind of proof of everything sent to your address, was it your name or hers on the parcels? Tell them you thought she was an agent. CAB may be able to be the in between person

The CAB would not undertake this role

We all need to stop giving advice till the lady sends a statement.

Thanks Aridane, I wasn’t sure.

We all need to stop giving advice till the lady sends a statement.

The point is that the lady will not send a statement, thus she is not legally acknowledging the amount due. OP could have grounds to say the entire debt is paid, thank you goodbye (in writing) and until or unless the woman makes some form of redress about the true amount, OP is not legally obliged to pay anything. There is nothing solid here at all. The only solid thing is that the woman owes Very the money. No other legal evidence exists except the texts from OP to the woman and OPs regular payment. As there is no final amount and no regular payment, OP could easily say the debt is paid and that’s the end. It is in the woman’s best interest to give OP a statement, but she won’t because OP is afraid and will keep paying. OP holds all the cards here.

As there is no final amount and no regular payment,

Sorry, meant to say there is no formally agreed regular payment schedule.

Agree with evilmorty. The other lady has shown to be reluctant in providing the details/ statements/ transactions and it’s best to accept she won’t do it. OP should make the safest guess estimation of what she’s bought and paid and write a letter to her friend ( this is important) informing her she is ceasing payments as her entire debt has been paid for now.

Yes, I don’t know why people are saying the OP needs to be proactive in this. Quite the opposite. As far as the OP is aware, the debt has been repaid in full. If the friend feels otherwise, then she needs to prove it by showing the invoices or statements. The ball is in the friends court, not the OPs.

Blackcat If I were the OP I'd be concerned that if I had miscalculated and stopped paying I would end up on the hook not just for the additional money I had spent (which is fair enough) but also for any interest that might rack up before the matter was settled. So I'm not sure a totally passive approach will cover the OP in the best manner possible. Of course, if she really can't get a statement out of her "friend" there's not much more she can do. Continuing to pay when she is pretty certain shes paid everything off would be foolish.

Have you actually contacted Very. I'm sure this has happened time and time again, Very might be able to give you some advice.

I'm also thinking if Very records any phonecalls, make sure you write down the time and date and get the operators name. If you say you want to get this sorted, acknowledge that you might or might not owe money, you'll have a trail of trying to sort this should your friend take this further.

@DimplesToadfoot are you suggesting that if the OP’s “friend” took OP to small claims court, it would make some difference if she could somehow get Very to release a recording of her saying she was trying to sort it out? That really is not how things work.

I agree, I don’t think the OP has any worries really. She’s never been told how much she owes. She’s never been asked for a set monthly amount or for what duration. There is no confirmation of any of this except verbally, and as the woman makes wont put in to writing, electronically or otherwise what the situation is, OP could make up any amount and say that’s what she owed and has already paid. If her account says she’s paid £1400 then yeah, that was the amount and who can prove otherwise. And there is proof of those payments. Delivery address means not much really. It’s not legally even her debt. Very has never heard of her and has no legal agreement with her. She could disappear and Very would send the bailiff to the other woman.

Except the proof of the payments is a little muddled because OP gave a pre-paid bank card (no proof) and also owed the “friend” money for her childminding services.
Given the lack of knowledge about what she ordered, I suspect there might be a lack of invoices for childminding to match up. If I were the scamming “friend”, I’d be claiming some payments made were for babysitting, not repayments!

OP could say the payments were for childminding services and the deliveries were made to her house because her the childminder had them delivered to her house ie her workplace. Friend is fucked legally, there is zero comeback on OP if she were to do a runner.

Not saying you will OP and obviously you should have kept a detailed inventory and written some of this down properly, but your friend has been even more silly because all the financial come back is on her.

Very charge interest, Littlewoods don't. The only way that would be a beneficial is if you're paying the full price when buying which is rare and not the point of catalogues.

How many more times, VERY DONT CHARGE INTEREST if you pay it off before the end of the BNPL, exactly the same as Littlewoods except with cheaper prices 😁

@Ellisandra

No I'm suggesting she leaves behind a trail of evidence showing she's tried to sort this.

The OPs friend still has every right to take the op to small claims court should the op still owe any money

But thanks for explaining to me how things work, I'm sure you know best after all sigh butts out

The regular payments suggest she has already reasonably tried to sort whatever situation this is, she doesn’t need a phone call recording which would be difficult to get anyway. The courts won’t know either if it’s a scam, if it’s as OP says or if the payments were for childminding services or anything else as nothing is written down. The onus is on the woman to record that. As there is no confirmation of the final amount, there is no confirmation of when payment should cease. The court would just say to the woman, it’s your debt, prove it isn’t. And she can’t.

Can't you get a copy of the catalogue or look at an online version of it...

Write down everything you bought and prices

Then look at bank statements and work out when you first made payments and if you made weekly payments of the same amount write down all the payments you made....

Now add up the total of all payments made

Now add up the total of your order

Deduct what you have paid from order total....you will be left with what you owe...

Make an extra copy to give to friend to show her you are record keeping your payments so that she doesn't have you making payments even when you have paid your purchases off

How many more times, VERY DONT CHARGE INTEREST if you pay it off before the end of the BNPL, exactly the same as Littlewoods

And how many more times. Very operate the same as studio and marisota do. They charge interest based on what you pay each month. It gives you illusion of it being cheaper. It isn't. I'm not talking about BNPL

I'm not particularly arsed if you believe me so you can get your G string in a bunch all you want.

@gamerchick If you purchase items on Very that aren't on BNPL, you automatically get the option of 3 months' interest-free installments on your statement.

www.very.co.uk/take3.page

You only pay interest with Very if you don't pay your three installments in full and on time (or if you don't pay a BNPL item off before the agreed period ends).

It is completely irrelevant what Very charges, or any other company. OP is not a party to any credit agreement, has not agreed to any specified interest rate or Terms&Conditions, and has no control over whether the payments she has made to this friend go straight into the debt or get spent on holiday treats instead. Her reasonable debt us solely the cash price for the items she ordered - she has no reason to doubt that all her purchases were covered as interest free. Any interest the friend gets charged will he due to her own financial mismanagement not the OP's problem.

People need to stop telling OP to contact very , you have been daft OP but your friend even dafter and I suspect it’s suited her having people giving her cash each month while she defaulted catalogue this acting like a loan shark , I suspect since she’s defaulted catalogue she has been locked out the account hence she can’t get into account to prove why anyone owes and I don’t think she’s paid very a penny but still enjoys the cash alternative .

Don’t pay her a bean till she can discuss it with you like an adult and make it clear you won’t indefinitely hand cash over .

From what I've understood everything has been ordered in friends name through friends account. So any money owing will be in friends name. Explain to friend i want to see proof of how much i've paid and how much i still owe. You won't be paying a single penny more until this happens. And any threats from husband or any other people and the police will have to become involved. Tell her your very grateful to her for helping you out and your more than willing to pay your debt.
I personally think she's spent your money on other things. Now she's freaking out at the interest owed on top of debt and thinks your rather dim and will pay whatever she says. Why would you not show how much someone owes you. Especially someone whose willing to pay what they owe.