Credit Card fraud by mother

[lum7777]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? California

I am dating a guy that has terrible credit and I want to know (a). how to help him (2). how it will affect me in the long run.

My boyfriend is adopted. In high school, he got in touch with his biological mother in California. He visited her (and her new husband and son) during the summers. After he graduated from college, he moved out to California and lived with his biological mother. About a year into it, he found that there were 2 credit cards openned under his name that were maxed out and unpaid. The charges were for craft projects that his mother enjoys. After a blowout, he moved out.

Now, he is faced with terrible credit. The credit card company hired a collecting agency. He moved to another location in California and has not been contacted since and has not settled this (poor move on his part, though he did not move for the purpose of avoiding this). Now, he cannot have any credit cards and has terrible debt even though he is financially stable and responsible. He does not want to have to report his own mother because he realizes it is a federal offense and does not want to send her to jail (mostly because he fears for the upbringing of his stepbrother). He is willing to just pay off the amount but is unsure how this will affect his credit. Because this is such a sensitive issue, he has avoided taking care of this for years and I am finally intervening because it makes me very uncomfortable.

Can you please advise on the best steps for him to take to clear and regain good credit? Also, how would this affect me in the long run if we ended up getting married?

[cmorris]

A paid charge-off is no better than an unpaid one. If he pays it, why won't his mother do it again? And again? Or to his brother? He should file a report, get fraud alerts placed on his credit reports, and check frequently.

Go to creditboards.com. Read the Newbie's Section.

[Who's Liable?]

First of all his mother is a thief, and should be sent to jail... Identitify theft is what it is called, she took advantage of him, and now he is on the hook for it...
I'll say it for both of you, she is SCUM...

Depending on how long ago this happened (you mentioned years), most likely, he is going to pay for it all out of his own pocket, because he didn't report it immediately or within a reasonable time frame... It will be hard convincing a CC company that a debt ran up 3 years ago was fraudulant...

My advice would be to dump him as he is clearly not responsible enough to take care of his own financial matters, and just keeps "pushing it off" Then again, that's my own opinion...