A Mom Who Opened $30K Worth Of Accounts In Her Daughter's Name Said It Was Her Kid's Way To 'Pay Her Back' For Raising Her
Children don't owe their parents for being born.
progressman | Shutterstock A young woman found herself facing a steep gauntlet after she was implicated by a series of criminal financial choices that her mother made in her name.
The mom opened $30,0000 worth of credit card debt in her daughter’s name and declared it was payback for raising her.
“My mom opened several accounts in my name and tanked my credit score,” the young woman said. “Now, I’m $30,000 in debt and she says I owe her for raising me and should not report it.”
She explained that her saga started about a year ago, when she was about to graduate from college.
“I received a bill in the mail for a credit card that I knew wasn’t mine,” she said. “I’ve always paid my one credit card on time and it was from a different company.”
The woman’s mother said she’d added her to her own credit card as an authorized user, to explain away the bill.
“This ended up being red flag number one,” the woman said. “Fast forward to a month ago, and I was looking into new apartments as I was moving for my job.”
She applied for an apartment she liked, noting that her salary was “well above their minimum requirements,” so she was shocked to have her application rejected.
“A few days later, I got a letter in the mail explaining it was due to my credit,” she said. “I figured it had to be a mistake, so I ended up checking my credit score for myself.”
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“I was floored when I saw my score, 490, and I had several accounts in collections,” she said.
When she called the electric company, which one of the collection accounts was for, they told her the address was her mom’s current address.
“I got in touch with one of the credit card companies I saw, and the listed address was the same,” she said.
“I really didn’t want to believe my mom had opened these accounts, so I called her about them,” the woman said. “My mom claimed she had no idea about the accounts and that I probably got hacked.”
“She had never really done anything to betray my trust in the past, so I foolishly believed her at the time,” she said.
One of the woman’s friends recommended making a police report, or else she might “end up owing tens of thousands of dollars.”
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The woman filed a police report, only to have her mom say she should cancel it “Because it wouldn’t do any good.”
“She tried saying it was just wasting their time, and I should call it off and just ignore it,” the woman said. She refused to cancel the report, saying, “I didn’t want to be on the hook for what ended up being $30,000.”
“She said I had to do it because she opened the accounts,” the woman said. “She finally said I just needed to take the hit on this one and declare bankruptcy.”
“She literally told me I should be grateful to her for letting me go to college, so I should cancel the police report before they find out it was her.”
Yet the woman noted that she got scholarships, grants, and a “small amount of student loan debt” that paid for her education, as her mom “didn’t pay for anything at all.”
The woman felt ‘kind of conflicted’ because she didn’t want her mom to go to jail, but she didn’t want to be responsible for her financial misdeeds.
“From what I’ve read, declaring bankruptcy would basically prevent me from doing anything with my credit for a few years, and it would take a full decade to drop off,” she said. “There are nine accounts total with three in collections.”
She's right. According to Experian, filing for bankruptcy could offer an immediate sense of relief from the stress of debt, but it should never be entered into lightly because it can have a devastating impact on your credit. She could lose her car, and decimate her credit which is already in dire straights. The bankruptcy would also follow her for the better part of a decade or more.
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A few weeks passed, and the woman shared that “Things are starting to get better for me with my credit, though my family isn't happy with it.”
“I didn't cancel the police report as I wasn't going to ‘take the hit’ on $30,000 in debt that wasn't mine,” she said. “My mom and I have always gotten along alright growing up and even through college when I'd come back home for the summers.”
“I disputed all of the accounts with the credit agencies and a couple of the accounts are already gone with the police report number,” she continued.
The woman’s sister told her that their mom was arrested and saw a judge, where she was charged with four counts of felony identity theft.
Her mom was released from jail on recognizance, but was giving her daughter the cold shoulder.
“She hasn't called but I've received calls from both of my sisters, my uncle and my grandfather,” the woman said. “The calls ranged from telling me I should drop the charges to one of my sisters absolutely screaming her head off at me.”
“I tried calling my mom and there was no answer, I tried texting and the same thing, even though it shows read,” she said. “I'm unfortunately still conflicted about sending my mom to jail.”
It makes sense that the young woman was conflicted about her next steps, as she didn’t want to hurt her mom, despite her mom’s actions hurting her.
There’s a difficult yet clear-cut question the woman needs to ask herself: Does she take care of herself and her own future or does she protect her mom’s wrongdoing?
Her mom was willing to implicate her own child in a crime; yet still, the daughter feels tethered to taking care of her.
There’s no easy solution to her predicament, as she faces a loss no matter what she decides. Hopefully, she’ll prioritize her own well-being, and not the parent who threw her to the wolves financially.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers social issues, pop culture analysis and all things to do with the entertainment industry.