Will my brother's bad credit rating ever affect me or the rest of the family?

Question

My brother has borrowed a lot of money over a few years, but as a family we do not know what his financial standings are. We do know that they're not good, because he's a terrible liar, and won't tell us the truth. He asked me to fix his computer last month, having left some open web pages on declaring bankrupcy (and a few other hair-raising things in the history). Needless to say, we're concerned, but I'm also concerned for us. Will what he does concerning money ever affect the family name, or just him? My mother has had an excellent credit history over 15 years, but recently she discovered that her credit limit has dropped to £0. She has contacted the bank about this (as she was not informed), but we think it could be related to my brother as they both use the same bank.

Answers and advice would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Unfortunately this is possible. If he is using the same address as any member of the family to obtain his credit then more often than not when a credit company do a search on an individual it will show up everything at the address.

This can affect whether the person is approved for the credit or not.

I suggest if you or your mother do live at the same address you contact Experian who are the credit reference agency providing all the information and ask for a "Notice of Correction" to be put onto the history. This allows you to write a small paragraph detailing that although you reside at this address you are in no way associated with the financial status of "name your brother!" and that you wish to make it clear that you do not console his conduct of his finance and it does not reflect how you tend to your own financial matters" This lets anyone viewing the credit history see your statement regarding his credit problems and know that it in no way involves you.

Tell your brother to contact his local Trading standards office, they are better than the local Citizens advice as they have formal qualifications in dealing with these things. They will help with the debt and advise if your brother should consider a Trust Deed or an Independent voluntary arrangement to help sort out his debt. He should deal with this now as receiving defaults and County Court Judgments for unpaid debts will stop him being able to get any kind of credit in the future, including mortgages.

Best of luck.

Answer 2

go to: www.experian.co.uk
This is one of the credit agencies that holds information about your credit ratings and associations and supplies your credit score to potential borrowers. You can view your account on line going back about 6 years. I think you can get a 30 free trial for a view only access. But with all these credit agencies you will have to pay around five pounds to get an actual printed report. Once you have this you can question your associations and 'clean up' any bad credit history. And you can get a bad credit score if you have any financial ties to people with a bad credit score.

Answer 3

i do not study about this actual organization, yet debt alleviation facilities can in all likelihood influence your credit. because of this: once you sign up for a debt alleviation provider, you're usually required to close your revolving credit charges (i.e. charge playing cards). by technique of doing so, you're lowering your accessible credit, yet your debt remains an same. area of your credit is in accordance on your stability to accessible credit ratio. So... enable's say you've a $3,000 stability on your charge playing cards and a $12,000 decrease. Your stability to accessible credit ratio is 25%. in case you close up your charge playing cards, you at present have $0 accessible credit, so your ratio is now more effective than one hundred%. credit drops contained in the approach. yet it really is only a non everlasting challenge. in case you make the most of the debt alleviation provider to diminish your rates of interest, and contained in the approach are able to pay off your charges quicker, then you definitely're credit will finally get more effective perfect and also you may in a lot of circumstances re-open your credit charges upon getting accomplished this methodology.

Answer 4

Your credit rating is often logged against your address, so if you share the same address with your brother then you could find that it will be marked against you. Contact a goverment credit agency and explain your problem, they will certainly be able to give you a run down of your own credit rating and if anythings effecting it, and be able to give advice about who and how to contact any companies.

Answer 5

Initially it could affect you all as a debt is registered against an address as well as the person. You may find yourself being refused credit and having to go through the process of obtaining a copy of your credit report and amending as necessary - can be done but a pain in the **** and time consuming. xxx

Answer 6

If there is anyway that your brother has used your name or his Mother's name deceitfully, then the bad credit rating will also effect your name and availabitly. If either of you have signed a loan , as co-signer, then it will effect you or your Mother. Otherwise, if you or you Mother is not associated with your brother, financially, then the Bank or lending , can not hold his bad credit rating against you.

Answer 7

If hes using the same address then yes your whole family could be affected if they live in the same house.

Answer 8

I don't know legal situation, but I know families. Your brother may will involve you if you let him, lending money to him, or giving money to him, will not be helping him in the long run. He needs to gain control of his finances, but if he doesn't don't let him drag you down with him.
Hope it all works out okay for you all.

Answer 9

Your family's credit will be affected only if you co signed for him or allowed him to use your credit.

Answer 10

Your credit rating is independent of anyone else's other than a spouse.