Mirellys wrote to me through the GetOutOfDebt.org site and asked the following question. If you have a credit or debt question you’d like to ask just use the online form. I’m happy to help you totally for free.
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“Dear Steve,
I’m 20yrs old and about to have my first child, i’d really like to get my own place and be independent but it’s real hard because without my knowing my mother used my name and ss# to put utilities in the house and that’s been accumulating since i was about 15 now because of her i owe over $5,000 in debt.
I only have a part time job that doesnt provide me enough to send a little money to everyone and still have to survive.
What do i do? where do i go to for help? is it possible that i can qualify for any kind of grants?
Mirellys”
The Answer:
Dear Mirellys,
What your mother did was illegal and trashed your credit. Unfortunately it has also left you in a horrible situation where the typical apartment complex is probably not going to give you an apartment with your bad credit without you putting up more money and the utility companies are not going to give you new service with the huge bad debts for utilities in your name.
The solution to this problem is going to be a multi-stage process. First, the only way for you to stop the old debt following you is going to be for you or your mom to pay that bill off, which you probably can’t do. Next, you’ll probably have to look at bankruptcy to eliminate that debt from your responsibility. When you do that the utilities are going to look at your mother to make other arrangements or switch the utilities off.
Next, you will have to start to build some new good credit. I suggest that you do this by getting and using a secured credit card that reports your activity to the major credit bureaus. You can’t build a new good credit history without having good credit reported about you.
There are no grants to bail you out of this mess. It is going to take hard work and certainly longer than nine months.
The only other solution I can think of that is less expensive if for you to rent a room in a private home. While that might get you out of the house, since the utilities are in your name that does not eliminate the possibility that you will be sued by the utilities or you already have been sued by the utilities for the past due debts. The utility situation is simply an identity theft by family member mess that will take time to deal with. Thanks mom!
You should also get a copy of your consolidated credit report and make sure there are no other debts in your name that you don’t know about. Chances are, there are.
