Neighbour has a credit card registered to our address?
Discussion
Hey Everyone,
I suspect this is just one of those mistakes people make but I just feel a bit uneasy. As per title, yesterday we had mail delivered to our house number but with his name. I thought nothing of it and passed it over mentioning that whatever it was he needed to update the address with the provider of whatever the mail was.
Today a credit card arrives (you can tell by the feel of it) plus some other bit of mail addressed to him at our address. I think they are all from the same provider (just based on the timing)
As I said I think its a genuine mistake but is there anything I should be doing to make sure nothing nefarious is happening?
I suspect this is just one of those mistakes people make but I just feel a bit uneasy. As per title, yesterday we had mail delivered to our house number but with his name. I thought nothing of it and passed it over mentioning that whatever it was he needed to update the address with the provider of whatever the mail was.
Today a credit card arrives (you can tell by the feel of it) plus some other bit of mail addressed to him at our address. I think they are all from the same provider (just based on the timing)
As I said I think its a genuine mistake but is there anything I should be doing to make sure nothing nefarious is happening?
Your neighbour might have made an innocent mistake when applying for the card. If so, then the card provider's address verification procedures are a bit rubbish.
As somebody else said, just stick the letter back in the post with 'not known at this address' on it. Let the card provider sort it out.
As somebody else said, just stick the letter back in the post with 'not known at this address' on it. Let the card provider sort it out.
CoffeeGuy said:
Hey Everyone,
I suspect this is just one of those mistakes people make but I just feel a bit uneasy. As per title, yesterday we had mail delivered to our house number but with his name. I thought nothing of it and passed it over mentioning that whatever it was he needed to update the address with the provider of whatever the mail was.
Today a credit card arrives (you can tell by the feel of it) plus some other bit of mail addressed to him at our address. I think they are all from the same provider (just based on the timing)
As I said I think its a genuine mistake but is there anything I should be doing to make sure nothing nefarious is happening?
Sounds like a card and probably the pin.I suspect this is just one of those mistakes people make but I just feel a bit uneasy. As per title, yesterday we had mail delivered to our house number but with his name. I thought nothing of it and passed it over mentioning that whatever it was he needed to update the address with the provider of whatever the mail was.
Today a credit card arrives (you can tell by the feel of it) plus some other bit of mail addressed to him at our address. I think they are all from the same provider (just based on the timing)
As I said I think its a genuine mistake but is there anything I should be doing to make sure nothing nefarious is happening?
If I knew the neighbour and it was old John the retired accountant who invites you round every few months for a few beers then I might cut him some slack. IYSWIM.
But if I don't know them very well its going back return to sender.
gotoPzero said:
Sounds like a card and probably the pin.
If I knew the neighbour and it was old John the retired accountant who invites you round every few months for a few beers then I might cut him some slack. IYSWIM.
But if I don't know them very well its going back return to sender.
Yes I would send it back because if they are too lazy to change the address and you knew they were using your address then it could be seen that you are allowing it.If I knew the neighbour and it was old John the retired accountant who invites you round every few months for a few beers then I might cut him some slack. IYSWIM.
But if I don't know them very well its going back return to sender.
This could then get complicated. Having handed the letter next door, the responsibility is their's to resolve.
I would speak to the neighbour but also write to the card issuer and explain the address mis-match very clearly.
If I did not trust the neighbour I would write to the card issuer and ask them to sort it asap. I would probably phone them too.
As a precaution you can put a cifas marker on your credit file so that any new credit application will request a lot more I.D. Etc.
If I did not trust the neighbour I would write to the card issuer and ask them to sort it asap. I would probably phone them too.
As a precaution you can put a cifas marker on your credit file so that any new credit application will request a lot more I.D. Etc.
Matt_E_Mulsion said:
How well do you know this neighbour? If it wasn't a credit card then I probably wouldn't be so suspicious. But if he racks up a big bill and fails to pay it, where do you think the bailiffs will come knocking???
This ^.Given that the address selection on the application is usually in the format of type your post code, then choose your house number from a drop down list, it is possible that fat fingers on his mouse selected your address accidentally and he hadn't realised his error, but my spidey senses tell me this was more likely to be intentional. How well you know someone does not necessarily give any indication of their finances. Many people debted up their eyeballs and beyond are very good at hiding the fact.
You won't know if he's corrected the address and I don't see how you could find that out either. The first you will know is when the letters arrive for missed payments, as those get sent out in the post even if you have your account set to paperless. If you receive any more mail addressed to him, demand that he open it in front of you so you can see what it is and tell him that any future mail arriving addressed to him will be opened regardless, so make sure you have 'corrected' your address to your own. If he gets defensive and starts giving you spiel about it being illegal to open other people's mail, then you'll have your answer that he's using your address to rack up debt.
r3g said:
This ^.
Given that the address selection on the application is usually in the format of type your post code, then choose your house number from a drop down list, it is possible that fat fingers on his mouse selected your address accidentally and he hadn't realised his error, but my spidey senses tell me this was more likely to be intentional. How well you know someone does not necessarily give any indication of their finances. Many people debted up their eyeballs and beyond are very good at hiding the fact.
You won't know if he's corrected the address and I don't see how you could find that out either. The first you will know is when the letters arrive for missed payments, as those get sent out in the post even if you have your account set to paperless. If you receive any more mail addressed to him, demand that he open it in front of you so you can see what it is and tell him that any future mail arriving addressed to him will be opened regardless, so make sure you have 'corrected' your address to your own. If he gets defensive and starts giving you spiel about it being illegal to open other people's mail, then you'll have your answer that he's using your address to rack up debt.
Yes, but if it's a credit card (or a debit card), the bank's credit and identity checking should have picked up the incorrect address before they approved or issued any cards. The process should have been halted at that point. They always ask how long you've lived at your current address, and any previous addresses, so it should be very clear that the details don't match, despite only being a digit wrong.Given that the address selection on the application is usually in the format of type your post code, then choose your house number from a drop down list, it is possible that fat fingers on his mouse selected your address accidentally and he hadn't realised his error, but my spidey senses tell me this was more likely to be intentional. How well you know someone does not necessarily give any indication of their finances. Many people debted up their eyeballs and beyond are very good at hiding the fact.
You won't know if he's corrected the address and I don't see how you could find that out either. The first you will know is when the letters arrive for missed payments, as those get sent out in the post even if you have your account set to paperless. If you receive any more mail addressed to him, demand that he open it in front of you so you can see what it is and tell him that any future mail arriving addressed to him will be opened regardless, so make sure you have 'corrected' your address to your own. If he gets defensive and starts giving you spiel about it being illegal to open other people's mail, then you'll have your answer that he's using your address to rack up debt.
Unless OP knows and trusts this neighbour very well, I'd be inclined to drop it back in the post with 'not known at this address' written on it. Neighbour already knows about the issue since OP spoke to him about the first letter. An honest person would immediately get on to whoever it is to get the mistake resolved. So the cards/current post going back to sender shouldn't be an issue at all, because the sender should already know by now that it's the wrong address.
mjb1 said:
Yes, but if it's a credit card (or a debit card), the bank's credit and identity checking should have picked up the incorrect address before they approved or issued any cards. The process should have been halted at that point. They always ask how long you've lived at your current address, and any previous addresses, so it should be very clear that the details don't match, despite only being a digit wrong.
This is of course true, but mistakes can and do slip through the net. I used to work for HSBC in a fraud department so I'm familiar with most of the tactics used. If the credit card app was with a banking group that he already has other accounts with, there are ways to manipulate your personal data to have cards dispatched to different addresses. I would think that is unlikely in this scenario though.Generally speaking, if his accounts are all in good standing without any sizeable debt or fraud markers, then inputting a different address wouldn't necessarily trigger a mismatch - particularly not if it's with the same banking group as his details would already be verified and it would only be a soft credit check internally without querying a CRA. Also if the card is from a company who use a different CRA, then they wouldn't necessarily see there's an address mismatch as they are not interlinked and some accounts only report to certain CRAs.
I'd not bother returning-to-sender, just telephone one of the numbers of the letter and tell them it has been sent in error and they'll cancel it - you don't even have to say that you think/know it is your neighbour's name.
(Although I suspect it is not the best planned scam in the world as it relies on you handing the card and PIN over to your neighbour).
(Although I suspect it is not the best planned scam in the world as it relies on you handing the card and PIN over to your neighbour).
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