What has been your biggest financial headache?

When Fernando*, who was usually very careful about his credit score, ran his yearly credit check he received a massive surprise. He was a dual citizen of the US and the UK so he ran his check in both countries. While the UK one came back clean, there was a $45,000 loan he had seemingly defaulted on in the US. He owed $40,000 to Wells Fargo bank and $5,000 to Comcast, a US telecoms company.

He was living in the UK at the time. He called the bank to understand what had happened, as he had not taken a loan out with them. It turns out that his brother had used his ID and social security number to take out the loan and buy a car. He had replaced Fernando’s picture with his own on the ID and the bank hadn’t suspected a thing.

While it should have been a straightforward interaction, it was anything but. Fernando had to deal with the bureaucracy of the bank and governmental agencies to make sure the loan was written off.

Defaulting on those loans had tanked his credit score, so he was keen to get it sorted, but first he had to file a police report. The local police department in the US first declined to help him, saying because he lived in the UK, it was in their jurisdiction. The police department in the UK of course told him that it had nothing to do with them.

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*name changed