Am I In Trouble Here

What is the name of your state? MO

As far back as one year, I have been paying my sister cash and then paying my credit card payment by phone using "her" checking account. I got behind in paying her but still payed $70.00 per month to the credit card using her account. She has become angry with me and is now telling the bank that I didn't have her permission to do this. I have heard through other family members that she intends to press charges or have the bank press charges against me. I understand that I must pay her this money, but as a single mother I am afraid of what might happen to me ....legally. Can I go to jail? Will I be arrested? Someone please tell me what to expect.

If you can prove that you were given specific information in order to access your sister's checking account, then the responsibility will be her's for that situation. If you are arrested for what you've set up as the scenario, it could be akin to stealing money from the bank, utilizing information that you'd also stolen. Depending on the amount of money, you could be looking at a rather nasty felony charge.

Depending on your past, such as any other convictions or lack thereof, you could be looking at a few days in jail to possibly doing some prison time.

Bottom line is that you screwed over a family member who was helping you out, whether you did so in the way your sister is accusing you of or not. Your best bet is to get proof that she set up this situation with her checking account. If you can, then the case becomes a small claims court matter, and not a criminal charge.

Better yet, get proof and make amends with your sister, and never, ever get into a situation like this again.

Signor Franciesco Reply

My Sister Can't Say She Didn't Give Me The Information Herself. As I Said She Allowed Me To Use The Account For Over A Year. She Is Only Accusing Me Of "stealing" For The Past 5 Months. The Amount We Are Dealing With Is $420.00. I Have Never Been In Trouble With The Law In My 43 Years.

The Guilt You Have Passed My Way, Is Nothing To The Guilt I Am Dealing With Myself. There Is Much More To This Story Than I Shared In The Past Letter. My Sister Doing My Income Tax Return In 2003 And Having The Return Deposit In Her Checking Account Without My Permission. I Didn't Even Know For 4 Months. After She Knew I Was Still Waiting For The Check To Come In The Mail. And In The Months Of March April And May Of 2004 She Forged My Signiture On My Child Support Checks ...a Total Of 6 Checks And Put Them Into Her Checking Account As Well...... This Is An Ugly Family Fight, And I May Come Out The Looser. What Are Your Thoughts To All Of This.....please Do Tell.

Business and family sucks most of the time. While I understand there may be other factors from your sister's actions, you're the one asking the questions, and your actions are the most pertinent here. Can you explain what you need to access your sister's account? I need to know specifics, not numbers or any information like that, but do you need her SSN, a PIN number, etc.

Tell me that and I can go from there.

do you use special software to make the first letter of each word you type a capital letter?

Signorfrancesco Is Helpful

Thanks For The Reply.....I Never Stole This Information. When We First Started Doing This (Paying On The Phone) She Was Standing There With Me And Gave Me The Routing Numbers And Checking Account Numbers And I Fed Them Into The Phone. After That When I Would Call To Make The Payment On The Credit Card, It Would Simply Ask If I Wanted To Use The Account On File. I Used No Pin Number Or Any Other Type Of Personal Information Of My Sisters.

what happened

Signor Francesco Why Did You Stop Writing?? Please Don't Leave Me Hanging Here.

Sorry, it was a busy weekend. Anyway, the problem here is proving that your sister gave you access to her account, and implied permission to use it to pay this debt that you had. If she was so intent upon stopping you from using the account, and did not continue to give permission, then why did she not say something sooner? Why did she let this go on and now wants to accuse you of accessing her account without permission?

An officer, and possibly a judge, would listen to both sides of the story and figure out that there's bad blood because of several factors, not least of which is the fact that you stopped paying your sister while still accessing her account.

This then becomes a failure to pay a debt back to your sister instead of stealing money out of her account without her knowledge or permission. It sounds like the amount is not extremely significant, which would make this a case to go to a small claims court, if the two of you can't make other arrangements.

My advice is to get your sister to sit down with you and WRITE up an agreement. The agreement should state that you are to pay her back all the money you BORROWED in a certain amount of time. While this is not a major contract, it will at least say what you and your sister believed the situation to be. If it then becomes a legal matter you'd have a signed contract between the two of you, which will throw major doubt on you sister saying that you stole money from her account without her knowledge.

If this can't be accomplished, and it can only work if you actually intend to pay the money back on time, then you'd better get a consult with an attorney. I know it's extra cash that could go for something else that you may need, but the investment will save you a ton of money and headache later.

If she decides to press charges or file a complaint with the bank, she's going to have to come up with how you'd have access to her check book and the information you needed to complete these transactions. Also, why is she coming forward now, saying that this wasn't not OK instead of all those months ago when you first started doing this. One way or the other, she's going to have to answer these questions and it won't hold that she didn't know when that money was going out every month.

Fix this with your sister, put repayment in writing, or consult with attorney. If she's contacted the bank, you could try talking with them and explaining the situation, but I still believe the best way is to fix this with your sister and get something writen down. Maybe even have the first payment in hand as a way of showing good faith on your part.

Any other thoughts or questions?

Thank You

I Feel Much Better About All Of This. Thank You For Your Help And Words In This Matter. I Will Be Sending Some Money To My Sister This Week And Hope That She Will Accept It......along With My Heartfelt Appologies. God Bless You All And Thanks Again.