My mother has made me look like an idiot over credit card.

[MsSparkler]

In 2003 when i was 18 Capitol One offered me a credit card of which i accepted. I never used it though, i guess i just liked the idea of having one being 18 and all.

Since 2003 i have moved twice. The first time with my mother and the second time i moved in with my currant partner. In April this year i recieved a letter from a debt collecting company saying they had bought the debt off of Capitol One and that i owed them £485. I wrote to them questioning this and requested statements to show where this money had been spent.

They egnored my requests and just kept sending me standard letters threatening court action and kept denying they had statements of where the money was spent (even though i contacted Capitol One myself who confirmed the debt collecting agency had the statements.)

So i took it down to the Citizens Advice who wrote to them asking for the statements. This debt collecting agency egnored them and sent another court action threat letter this time from an in house solicitor. So the C.A contacted them again and i have finally after 7 months been sent the statements.

As soon as i saw the statements i knew who it was... my mother! The card had a £200 limit and she used it to pay £189 to NTL. She was the only one in the house who had an NTL account so i showed her and she couldn't deny it. She had made some payments but in January 2005 she just stopped paying it and it mounted up to £485 in charges.

She has said she will pay it but to be honest she hasn't got two pennies to rub together so it would be £5 a week or something. She has been stealing money from my house and my sisters house this last year so this isn't a big suprise to me.

Now i look like a right idiot because the debt collecting agency are not going to believe it wasn't me because of the random payments on the card and i don't know what to say to the C.A now. I am so worried because i can't afford to pay £485 on something that isn't even my debt. Help.

YOu haven't lied or been made to look an idiot. Someone has fraudulantly used your credit card without your knowledge, that it was your mother makes no difference as you didn't know. You still wouldn't have known by the sound of it unless you had been sent the statements.

Go to CAB and tell them what you have found out and see where to go from there.

Ok. I can't speak to the CAB until Tuesday because they don't open Mondays. It explains also why i never recieved any statements because my mother was hiding them from me. I am so worried.

Good - go to the CAB.

IT must be awful having your mum do something like that to you, but the quicker you get it sorted the less time you will have this worry hanging over you.

It's been on my mind since April! If the debt agency had just sent the statements when i asked instead of being forced by the CAB to send them, this could have been sorted months ago!

That's crappy.

Very stressful.

im so sorry your mother has done this to you.

the debt agency will not be interested in hearing about it not being your bill tbh, as far as they are concerned its your card and your debt. they just want their money.

i think you could probably contact CO and inform them that this bill is not yours and that the card has been used fraudulantly.
you can confirm the dates you lived at home, and when you moved out. if it was used to pay NTL then they will have teh account number it was assigned to and this will show that it wasn't yours.

once you can show the debt isn't yours then you will no longer be liable for it.
although your mother may well be in trouble for doing it maybe its the sort of wake up call she needs to understand just how wrong her actions have been.

i cannot imagine having to deal with your own mother stealiong from you

If it was a stranger that had used the card it wouldn't be so bad. I think i could prove the debt isn't mine in the way you suggested but it would prove it was my mother and what would happen to her?

Even though i am really pissed she has done this, i still worry what would happen to her over this?

I was thinking of maybe asking the CA if they could try and get the debt agency to reduce the amount owed as a sort of settlement fee which would be payed in full?

This isn't going to be good news I'm afraid. If you try to settle with them, then they'll take that as evidence that it is your debt (which obviously it isn't). Not only will you be paying back hundreds of pounds that you didn't spend, it will also really wreck your credit rating, and it will wreck it for years.
The only thing that you can really do is to tell Capitol One exactly what has happened. This means that they will have to know that it was your Mum who used the card. I know that this is really easy for me to write, and very hard for you to do, but if you don't make your Mum face up to the money that she stole from you, then things are going to get worse. She's stealing from your sister too. She really needs a wake-up call, and facing up to this debt might have to be it.
I'm really sorry.

If you tell them you didn't use the card and that it was used fraudulently then you'll be asked to report it to the police and to get a crime number. If you don't do that then they'll almost certainly pursue you I'm afraid.

I really am stuck aren't i. If i report it to the police then what would happen to my mother? A short prison sentance for fraud? I wouldn't want that.

She is going to pay this money back whether she likes it or not but she has no money so i don't know what to do.

If i offer a settlement fee of what the card was originally limited to, £200 (the rest is the charges that have mounted up) of which could be payed in full do you think they would accept?

£200 is better than £400 odd and my mother would have to pay me back (i wouldn't tell her i payed it and make her think she is paying the debt agency)

I would doubt she would be given a custodial sentance as i presume it is a first offence. teh amounts involved are small and youc an ask for no charges to be pressed ( although i think its the credit card that decides im sure your opinion will be taken into account)

it is more likely that she will be ordered to pay teh charges and an additional fine.
possibly some community service.

either way she needs to know this is wrong and you do not need a bad credit score on your file

I know what your saying is what i need to do but it's hard when it's your own mother.

The credit rating thing really doesn't bother me because i don't use credit-ever. Dp and i own our house out right so i don't need to worry about a morgage.

I am going to speak to the C.A tomorrow, i can't believe my mother has put me in this situation.

What an awful thing to have happened to you ...... both the stress of getting threatening letters over a debt you didn't accrue, and then finding out that your own mother has been stealing and lying to you.

I really think you need to look after your own interests here though. You may think that a credit rating is of no real relevance to your current circumstances but we never know what's round the corner, and you might need credit in the future (even if you think that's unlikely).

I just spoke to the citizens advice and the woman was very firm but it's what i need. She said i could;

1. Egnore the letters, go to court and a judge would decide how much i would have to pay based on the household income.

2. Make them a lump sum offer so some of the debt is written off and see if they accept.

3. Prosicute my mother and she would have to pay it and would end up with a criminal record.

4. Get C.A to set up a monthy payment plan and pay the whole £485.

I have chosen no2 and i will make them an offer. If they don't accept then it will have to be option 4. I am not doing option 4 first because if they accept my lump sum offer it will be less than the £485 so i will pay back less.

The thing that bums me most is they will base how much is payed monthly on the household income. Meaning it will be my dp who ends up paying because i am a sahm and so don't have an income of my own. My dp will have to try and get the money off of my mother which will be £5 a week or something.