Robbed!

Whilst doing my regular bank statement check on Wednesday of this week, I noticed a charge to [BANK X] CREDIT CARD. I sat and looked at this for a moment, and then I said to myself, "Hang on, I haven't got a credit card from BANK X - I closed that card ages ago!"

I looked on my previous statement, and there was a charge last month as well. I remember seeing it last month, but as it had gone through at the same time I'd paid my actual credit card bill, I think I'd mentally just gone "credit card, yeah, that's right" without noting the actual name.

So there I am with a £99 charge and a £111 charge and no clue what it was for.

I called the phone bank facility and asked the somewhat clueless bloke if he could help. He couldn't, but he did put me through to the credit card dept, where I spoke to a more helpful woman. She confirmed that my BANK X credit card had been fully paid off in Jan 2007 and hadn't been used since. She advised me to go into the branch where they would be able to investigate.

So I printed off the relevant statements (I no longer get paper statements because it's a. better for the environment and b. one less way for fraudsters to steal your ID) and went into my local branch that afternoon, which is luckily only a few minutes' walk away.

It's a tiny,old-fashioned branch and I had to queue for about 15 minutes before getting to speak to someone. She had a look on my account, and couldn't work it out, so she ended up phoning credit card services herself. At this point I overheard the words "joint account" and suddenly the penny dropped - it was my ex-husband.

Now when I split with my ex, over 2 years ago now, we had originally agreed that I would open a new bank account and he could keep the BANK X one up, because since he had very little credit history (he had never had a bank account before I added him to mine) he thought he would have problems getting a new account elsewhere. However, he then applied and was accepted for an account at a different bank, so we decided instead that he would come off the BANK X account and I'd retain it as a solo account. I got a form from the bank to switch it to a solo account, and gave it to him to sign his part and send to the bank. He told me that he'd done it. In fact he told me twice that he'd done it, because I sent him a second form after I went into branch and checked whether he'd been removed, and found that he hadn't.

Only it transpires now that he hadn't, because his name was still on the account. And the charges on that account are from the collections department of the credit card, because they've been writing to his old address (he's never informed them that he'd moved) and presumably he's still been using his old BANK X card, and not paying the bill. So they've taken the step of directly debiting "his" bank account because they haven't had a response.

So. Bit of a disaster. My immediate impulse, of course, was to phone Ex and scream my head off at him. However, I restrained myself for two very good reasons: firstly that historically, any time I've argued with Ex for any reason, he's cut off my access to stepson, and secondly, I'd be effectively informing him that he still has access to my account - and he might decide to nip up to his local branch with some ID, tell them he's lost his cashcard and could he please draw some money out.

Instead, I made an appointment for yesterday afternoon to see an advisor in the branch. I sat down with her yesterday and we created a new solo account for me, and transferred all my direct debits and balance into that.

Although I will have to swallow the £200+ charges that have already gone out (I'd need to pursue him via a solicitor, and by the time I'd paid the solicitor's fees it would be more than the charges) in the long run, I'm going to wind up better off. Because the advisor upgraded my savings account to an instant-access ISA, which I didn't even realise you could get on an instant access these days, and it's paying me six times as much interest as my old savings account.

I also came away with some deposit slips all prepared for paying chunks off my loan, which I shall be starting to whittle away next year, as soon as the (real, actual) credit card is down to zero.

Lessons learned from this:
1. Always check bank account every week and scrutinise every charge carefully to be sure I KNOW for definite what it is.
2. When someone says they are going to do/have done something, don't take their word for it - check up on it.
3. Don't have a joint account. Seriously, just don't ever do it. When you split up with that partner, it will just be a huge headache. Even if you are terribly romantic and think you'll never break up with them, don't get one. Because if you have a problem on the account, then you're both stuck with the problem. If you keep separate accounts, then you always have one as a back up, because the chances of both accounts getting hosed at the same time are small.

I now have to work out how to approach this with Ex. There is a possibility that it's not actually him who's run up the charges and that he's been a victim of fraud himself. Because he didn't inform the credit card company that he'd moved, so if they sent him a new card and pin at that address, then whoever lives there now could have had it. If that's the case, he needs to know about it, because he'll have to get legal help to clear his name. (No problem for him - he's got no income, so he'll qualify for free legal help.)

In fact, that would be the best scenario - because if he can successfully claim for fraud, then I might get at least some of the money back. I can't claim for fraud, because he had legal access to the account... so if it was him who ran up the charges, then I can kiss the money goodbye.