topic Re: My Mother opened a Home Depot account in my name without my knowledge in General Credit Topics

My Mother opened a Home Depot account in my name without my knowledge

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:38:09 GMT

I spoke to her about it and told her to just pay it off and not do anything else. She never listens to what anyone tells her and is now trying to cancel the credit card claiming it was opened in error. I'm pretty sure by doing this my score will get lowered. Should I disput this on the credit report or should I confront Home Depot about this? I'm not sure what to do.

Re: My Mother opened a Home Depot account in my name without my knowledge

llecs — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:46:56 GMT

Was the card ever used?

If you dispute, HD will only verify. You'd really need a police report for ID theft if you were to do that. I'd probably call HD, and be up front. Tell them the card was opened by a relative and ask them if the account has a balance on it. If not, then ask them to close the CC AND to remove the TL off your CR, assuming you don't want it.

If you are worried about future attempts like this, then if I had no plans to seek credit in the near future, then I would place a fraud alert on my CRs to make it that much harder to obtain credit.

The HD account, if newly reported and at $0, could hurt your score by about 20-25 points for the new TL, assuming your mix of credit is good now. If your utilization was high, and if significantly lower due to this new TL, then depending on the CL, your score could actually rise.

Re: My Mother opened a Home Depot account in my name without my knowledge

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:13:52 GMT

If you have any use for a HD card and the balance isn't' outrageous, you could call them and report the card lost and get a new card with a different account number. Then keep the card for yourself and collect the balance from your mom.

Do you get mail at the same address? If so, I'd get a PO box and change the address to the PO Box.

If you don't get mail at the same address, but it has her address, I would change the address.

Re: My Mother opened a Home Depot account in my name without my knowledge

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:37:51 GMT

yes there is a $3000 dollar charge on the card she used it to renovate the kitchen she actually opened up 3 accounts one in her name and another in my brothers name as well each have $3000 charged. My revolving availability is still over 96% I'm just afraid that if she closes the account it will effect my score.

Message Edited by Vin75 on 11-03-2008 08:37 AM

Re: My Mother opened a Home Depot account in my name without my knowledge

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:14:44 GMT

Yes, closing the account will hurt with such a balance on there.

Plus, you have already taken the ding from a new account and lowered your age.

Does she plan to pay the account? Can you trust her to pay it and you just take the account over(of course letting her know that if she does it again, you aren't going to be so nice).

Unless the account is going to cost you money or you will never ever use it, I'd try to come up with a solution that works for the both of you and keeps the account open. Just my opinion.

The only way likely to get it removed will be to file a ID theft affidavit and police report.

You can try to get HD to remove it because of the circumstances, and they may not.

HD could also chose to file charges of their own because she did lie to them in order to open the account.

Re: My Mother opened a Home Depot account in my name without my knowledge

akaniks — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:33:18 GMT

Wow. I see stories like this all the time on these forums and I still find it hard to believe.

Re: My Mother opened a Home Depot account in my name without my knowledge

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:24:48 GMT

man! i can't believe this stuff.

i believe i'd call the police and not think twice about it. she didn't care about what happened to you when she did that, why should you care what happens to her?

am i evil?

Re: My Mother opened a Home Depot account in my name without my knowledge

akaniks — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:27:30 GMT

I would do the exact same thing!

Re: My Mother opened a Home Depot account in my name without my knowledge

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:45:40 GMT

I would probably do this as well but unfortunatly she is also owns the house I live in. My mom's not a bad person she's just loopy at times and thinks she knows more than anyone else. Oh and did I mention she can be very cheap. I'm going to try to see if I can call Home Depot and make sure that she is not allowed to touch my account.

Re: My Mother opened a Home Depot account in my name without my knowledge

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:39:37 GMT

I would make damned sure she knew exactly how worng this was and thhat charging up 6K in debt on other people's credit is illegal and imprisonable. That is grand theft. I know it is next to impossible to go after your own mom for money like this (I have been in a similiar situation)... In the end, you have to figure out how to keep her from going to Lowes or Sears the next time she wants to remodel the bathroom.... Hell, in alot of cases, people would have gladly helped the person by charging a couple things and letting the other person pay them back (plus all the interest) but some people just think that anything within the family (including credit) is communal property...

Re: My Mother opened a Home Depot account in my name without my knowledge

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 01:45:05 GMT

My brother and I have this problem too, only my brother knew about it; I didn't. My mother used my info when I was little, my brother basically got cards for her and made her an AU. She paid none of them and my brother eventually declared bk.

I've talked to my bank about having some way to verify they're talking to me on the phone (she often pretends to be me); they said there's really no way to keep her from doing it if I'm not willing to file a police report. And if you think about it, who ELSE knows the answer to most of the standard security questions? Yes! Your mother!

So, um, good luck

Re: My Mother opened a Home Depot account in my name without my knowledge

akaniks — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 03:10:36 GMT

You could switch to a new bank? That way you would have a new account number. Get a PO box for your mail. And if it's a huge problem you could look into getting a new social security number.

Re: My Mother opened a Home Depot account in my name without my knowledge

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 14:38:13 GMT

God help me and forgive me. And bless my mother's soul, may she rest in peace - but she used to steal petty cash from me all of the time when I worked part time as a teenager and I would get RIPPING P*ssed! So if she had ever done anything like that to me, starting out from a child to adult - I would confront her and say that if she didn't PIF within XX time frame, I would be forced to file a police report and ID theft! When the card was PIF I would say I lost the account and request a new acct# and keep the history on it - try to make it work in my favor - ppl have no common decency - that's fraud, plain and simple, even if it IS your mother!

Re: My Mother opened a Home Depot account in my name without my knowledge

GFer — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:24:50 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
God help me and forgive me. And bless my mother's soul, may she rest in peace - but she used to steal petty cash from me all of the time when I worked part time as a teenager and I would get RIPPING P*ssed! So if she had ever done anything like that to me, starting out from a child to adult - I would confront her and say that if she didn't PIF within XX time frame, I would be forced to file a police report and ID theft! When the card was PIF I would say I lost the account and request a new acct# and keep the history on it - try to make it work in my favor - ppl have no common decency - that's fraud, plain and simple, even if it IS your mother!

EXACTLY!

I am extremely family oriented, but I would not tolerate this. Yes, because of being family, I would give her the opportunity to redeem the situation, but I would NOT let it go.

Re: My Mother opened a Home Depot account in my name without my knowledge

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:50:23 GMT

I totally agree with you all....but you have to remember, at least for me, I grew up with her being this way. If she was suddenly some sort of drug addict or criminal, reporting her to the police would feel like a healthy way for me to interfere.

But she's always been this way, and its a little like dealing with a child. I mean, the money IS her problem. she always wants more and feels like she's owed it by the universe or whatever. Also, she's 60 something. She's not going to change.

I'm not defending myself or the OP, just saying its harder when its really happening to you, and yes, if its a sudden thing its easier than if its just....the way she is.

Not really a convincing argument there, is it?

Re: My Mother opened a Home Depot account in my name without my knowledge

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 20:14:12 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I totally agree with you all....but you have to remember, at least for me, I grew up with her being this way. If she was suddenly some sort of drug addict or criminal, reporting her to the police would feel like a healthy way for me to interfere.

But she's always been this way, and its a little like dealing with a child. I mean, the money IS her problem. she always wants more and feels like she's owed it by the universe or whatever. Also, she's 60 something. She's not going to change.

I'm not defending myself or the OP, just saying its harder when its really happening to you, and yes, if its a sudden thing its easier than if its just....the way she is.

Not really a convincing argument there, is it?

My MIL is the same way. While she's not opened cards in other people's names (at least, that I'm aware of), she DOES max cards out and rather than pay the bill, she writes "Deceased" on the envelope and returns to sender. The goofy thing is that she keeps getting them. Apparently, she's either fallen through the cracks somehow, or the CCCs don't bother reporting the derogs because durn nigh every day she gets a new card in the mail. At outrageous CLs, too.

She's in her late 70s and there's nothing anyone can do to change her. She's little more than a child, really. The world owes her and that's that. :/

Re: My Mother opened a Home Depot account in my name without my knowledge

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 20:17:21 GMT

My MIL is the same way. While she's not opened cards in other people's names (at least, that I'm aware of), she DOES max cards out and rather than pay the bill, she writes "Deceased" on the envelope and returns to sender. The goofy thing is that she keeps getting them.

Mine hasn't tried that yet. Don't go giving her ideas!

She's in her late 70s and there's nothing anyone can do to change her. She's little more than a child, really. The world owes her and that's that. :/

Yep. I know exactly what you mean.

Re: My Mother opened a Home Depot account in my name without my knowledge

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 15:26:50 GMT

Update!

I found out from Home Depot that she did not create a new account under me and my brother's name.

She actually just added us as authorized users to the one account. Now she went ahead and removed us from the account.

My question is now does removing our name effect our credit?

So far this hasn't effected my credit score from what I can see. But because my brother has less credit history than I do he's took a hit of 30 - 40 pts.

Re: My Mother opened a Home Depot account in my name without my knowledge

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 21:48:04 GMT

I've heard that if it's a relatively new account that it shouldn't effect your score too much. Plus, if you're credit history is well established beyond this card, then I would imagine that should minimize the effect it has on your credit score (these are educated guesses here) I've been trying read up and educate myself - so forgive me if I'm wrong on these guesses. Good to know that your mother didn't take as many liberties as we all thought she did - it could have been a little stickier!

Re: My Mother opened a Home Depot account in my name without my knowledge

Anonymous — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 02:55:54 GMT

Is there some way to dispute the AU? Seems bizarre that we could be added to any random acct which could then screw up our credit.