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Car Finance taken out in my name without consent
I was recently in the early stages of looking to buy a property and as such, I checked my credit score. In doing this I found that my credit score was extremely low (200 on Equifax) with notes to indicate I had not made certain payments on time. In investigating what these late payment charges related to I was able to confirm from Equifax that these were in connection with a Car Finance Company. As far as I was concerned at this point I did not have any agreements in place with this company and so I called them to understand what this related to. They asked me my name and my date of birth and I got through to security quite easy. The company informed me that it was to do with a vehicle which I could only identify as my Sisters. I was confused as to why they had my details on file and so tried to investigate this further.
I spoke to my Brother and he informed me that my Sister had written off the car 4 months earlier but that the insurance were in the process of making the payments. My Sister who owned the vehicle was not answering my calls and simply told me that the insurance was under my Mothers name if I wanted to chase it up myself if I was so concerned about the credit score. At this point I saw no option than to take matters into my own hands to understand exactly what was going on with this insurance.
I managed to get through to the insurance with the help of my Mother (who btw I would note is currently very ill), who informed me they were awaiting documentation. I let my Sister know this and so together we began gathering the information for submission to the insurance. This was for both the gap insurance and her normal insurance.
One of the items they had requested was a copy of the finance agreement which we requested a copy of. I was keen to see this myself as prior to checking my credit rating I had no knowledge/recollection of entering into any agreements in my name. I also have never stepped foot in the dealership my Sister got the car from. I called the finance company and they confirmed they could fax this to me. On receipt of the agreement, I noted that this had all my details, bank details, an old work address, my home address but no signature. I was quite shocked at this as I had never given this company my details and so I rang them back and told them this wasn’t me who gave this information and that I had no recollection of signing such an document. I told them that this was actually my Sisters car and insisted on them sending me a copy of the signed document.
The finance company weren’t very co-operative and actually pulled the plug on my call on two occasions of me asking for a copy of the signed document. I eventually spoke to someone who I was able to explain the situation to but they also refused to send me a signed copy of the agreement. Instead they put this forward to their fraud team to investigate. One point I did mention to the person on the phone was that whilst they had my bank details on this agreement no money had ever left my account to pay for this vehicle. They informed me that this was changed shortly after the agreement was entered into. They also confirmed the email address they had on file for the account which was not mine and was actually my Sisters.
Not knowing what else to do, I spoke to my friend who advised that they had no right to withhold the document and that I could submit a subject data access request to find out exactly how they have got this information and to get a copy of the signed document.
I have also since checked the rest of the documentation that the dealership sent to support the insurance claim, i.e. sales invoice etc and all of these documents are also unsigned.
There is currently 10k outstanding on finance while the insurance and gap insurance review the claims but more importantly I am concerned about my credit rating.
The person on the phone who referred this to the fraud team confirmed that the team would have 56 days to look into this. The following day another payment fell due and as I understand 5 missed payments can lead to a default on my credit rating I have been forced to make a payment for a car which I have never owned under an agreement which I have never given details for or signed. In doing this I wrote to the finance company explaining exactly the reason for me making the payment (i.e. to prevent further damage to my score) but that I didn’t believe this to be due and expect to be fully reimbursed once they have looked into this.
To top this all off my sibling has cut all contact with myself so I have no idea what to do from here. Please could someone help me understand where I stand as although this is my Sister I am pretty sure she has taken this out fraudulently in my name.
Any comments/advice would be much appreciated.
I spoke to my Brother and he informed me that my Sister had written off the car 4 months earlier but that the insurance were in the process of making the payments. My Sister who owned the vehicle was not answering my calls and simply told me that the insurance was under my Mothers name if I wanted to chase it up myself if I was so concerned about the credit score. At this point I saw no option than to take matters into my own hands to understand exactly what was going on with this insurance.
I managed to get through to the insurance with the help of my Mother (who btw I would note is currently very ill), who informed me they were awaiting documentation. I let my Sister know this and so together we began gathering the information for submission to the insurance. This was for both the gap insurance and her normal insurance.
One of the items they had requested was a copy of the finance agreement which we requested a copy of. I was keen to see this myself as prior to checking my credit rating I had no knowledge/recollection of entering into any agreements in my name. I also have never stepped foot in the dealership my Sister got the car from. I called the finance company and they confirmed they could fax this to me. On receipt of the agreement, I noted that this had all my details, bank details, an old work address, my home address but no signature. I was quite shocked at this as I had never given this company my details and so I rang them back and told them this wasn’t me who gave this information and that I had no recollection of signing such an document. I told them that this was actually my Sisters car and insisted on them sending me a copy of the signed document.
The finance company weren’t very co-operative and actually pulled the plug on my call on two occasions of me asking for a copy of the signed document. I eventually spoke to someone who I was able to explain the situation to but they also refused to send me a signed copy of the agreement. Instead they put this forward to their fraud team to investigate. One point I did mention to the person on the phone was that whilst they had my bank details on this agreement no money had ever left my account to pay for this vehicle. They informed me that this was changed shortly after the agreement was entered into. They also confirmed the email address they had on file for the account which was not mine and was actually my Sisters.
Not knowing what else to do, I spoke to my friend who advised that they had no right to withhold the document and that I could submit a subject data access request to find out exactly how they have got this information and to get a copy of the signed document.
I have also since checked the rest of the documentation that the dealership sent to support the insurance claim, i.e. sales invoice etc and all of these documents are also unsigned.
There is currently 10k outstanding on finance while the insurance and gap insurance review the claims but more importantly I am concerned about my credit rating.
The person on the phone who referred this to the fraud team confirmed that the team would have 56 days to look into this. The following day another payment fell due and as I understand 5 missed payments can lead to a default on my credit rating I have been forced to make a payment for a car which I have never owned under an agreement which I have never given details for or signed. In doing this I wrote to the finance company explaining exactly the reason for me making the payment (i.e. to prevent further damage to my score) but that I didn’t believe this to be due and expect to be fully reimbursed once they have looked into this.
To top this all off my sibling has cut all contact with myself so I have no idea what to do from here. Please could someone help me understand where I stand as although this is my Sister I am pretty sure she has taken this out fraudulently in my name.
Any comments/advice would be much appreciated.
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