I was talking to my older cousin yesterday and he's in the military. He's been separated from his wife for a few months now and going through a divorce. He filed it and has a few more loose ends to tie up before he sets a court date. The were only married a couple years with no kids and no assets.

She cheated on him while he was deployed and left him with some credit card debt. He's selling their F-150 (which he's also taking a loss on) and the rest of their stuff to pay off the bills so it doesn't ruin his credit. He's only 20 (doesn't want the debt she rung up to affect him forever), and pretty broke, but he'd rather get rid of the car and take a loss because she's unable to refinance it in her own name (the loan is not joint, it's his) because of her awful credit she can't get a loan.

He sounds like he has a lot of it under control, but something he said bothered me so I was looking for a place to ask. He said he got a bank statement for a joint savings account he never opened at a local bank he's never been too. It was a good thing because there's a couple hundred in it, and it's not a bill...but if she opened up a savings account with his name on it (I'm guessing with his power of attorney when he was deployed) Who knows what else she opened?! and cosigned?!

I'm hoping not credit cards. I really want him to take care of this before his divorce is finalized, but how can he find out if she opened up accounts in his name? I'm only 17 and don't know a whole lot about finance, but isn't there away to put some sort of credit freeze on your SSN? and I'm guessing he should run a credit report? What else does he need to do before he goes to court?

I know that family court normally has no effect on keeping someone's credit from being messed up after the divorce because what the court says can't override his agreements with the bank...so I don't want other financial things to turn up after he's divorced!

I'm really close with my cousin, his sister and my brother and we all wanted to buy a cabin in the mountains together and stuff. He's pretty good with his money and I was best friends with this girl. We never saw it coming but I don't want this to mess him up.

Note: When he first filed he was telling me how base legal is no help because he's filed the divorce in his home state and not the one he's stationed at.

Legal isn't helping him because it's a domestic/civilian matter, not a military matter. They can advise but not represent.

Definitely have the credit check done. That will tell him whether any credit cards were opened under his name. He can dispute those cards being opened if she did do that. Not only that, he can call the credit card company and tell them that someone opened the account fraudulently.

He should use the free credit report at annualcreditreport.com - this is the one that the FTC mandates all credit reporting services to provide each year to each person without charge.

"This central site allows you to request a free credit file disclosure, commonly called a credit report, once every 12 months from each of the nationwide consumer credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

AnnualCreditReport.com is the official site to help consumers to obtain their free credit report."

quote:

Originally posted by bobbysangelwife:
He can dispute those cards being opened if she did do that. Not only that, he can call the credit card company and tell them that someone opened the account fraudulently.

I thought she could legally open the accounts if she had a POA.

With a general POA she would have been able to do so until he revoked the POA, but his possible out is if she didn't let the bank know she was using a POA. In this day and age it's real easy to do things online, which means not actually producing the POA. If she didn't produce the POA for them, then she didn't use it which could mean that the transaction was fraudulent.

Quite often banks won't accept general POAs for many transactions. I'm currently trying to get my wife added as a secondary instead of just authorized user on my credit card, but my bank says we both have to be on the phone at the same time even though I've faxed in the general POA she gave me. We've both called separately, but never together. She's deployed so it makes coordinating tough. A bit inconvenient, but I know they're doing it for our own protection. If he has new credit cards, then those banks should be able to produce copies of the POA that they used for her to issue those cards.

quote:

Originally posted by TaxmanJim:
With a general POA she would have been able to do so until he revoked the POA, but his possible out is if she didn't let the bank know she was using a POA. In this day and age it's real easy to do things online, which means not actually producing the POA. If she didn't produce the POA for them, then she didn't use it which could mean that the transaction was fraudulent.

The transaction is not exactly fraudulent, but it would be voidable. That said, if there is a balance on the account the bank will make it difficult for you to void your participation as an account owner.

The best thing is to get a copy of one's credit file immediately and place a fraud alert or else a freeze on it so that his soon-to-be ex-wife cannot do any further damage. If unauthorized accounts are already listed on the credit report, contact each creditor to have his ownership stake eliminated. Also, pay careful attention to recent inquiries listed on the report as they may be indications of accounts opened, but not yet reporting because they are relatively new.