Got mobile contract and items on catalogue for friend and he hasnt paid.?

[ern]

I suffer from alot of mental illnesses and been know to be vunerable. This time I have been really stupid. My so called friend kept bugging me for months to take out a mobile contract for him as he has a bad credit rating for ages I said no. After constant nagging, bribing and catching me on a very down day I agreed. Then he did the same nagging to get a mobile phone out of my catalogue which was £500. After a month of bugging me yet again on a unstable day I agreed. 5 months down the line £1614 is owed to mobile contract with no payments made and £500 still owing on catalogue.
I am a single ill mum and student and cant afford to pay this.

Where do I stand in terms of the law? The contract has been passed to a debt collection agency.

Please no nasty comments, I feel stupid enough.

[menw]

If the contracts are in your name and not your friend's then unfortunately you are liable for the full debt. I hope you get this sorted.

[nicolas]

I would ask the advice of a solicitor, they usually give you 30 minutes of free advice to see whether it's worth proceeding. It may be argued you entered into a verbal contract and therefore your friend is bound by law to repay you, it may be a lot more difficult than that though.

[merla15]

Firstly, don't panic! This is not the end of the world. You'd be surprised how many people do this sort of thing. I'm sure you just thought you were helping a friend out but we've all been let down by people we trusted. Sadly as the law stands, if the contract is in your name it's your debt - doesn't matter who actually used the phone. You'd have no chance trying to get money from your friend in court as they would argue it's your responsibility for taking out the contract and letting him use the phone. Contact the Consumer Credit Counselling Service on 0800 138 1111 - it‘s a free number even from mobiles - have all the details ready, paperwork etc, as they can assess the case on an individual basis. They are free and very good at what they do. Ask the CCCS how to approach the phone company about your friend using it because they could argue you lied to them when setting up the contract - as far as they are concerned the mobile line was for your use, not your friend - don’t forget why he didn’t take it out in his name in the first place. I don’t know the technical details of where you stand on that as it depends on the wording of your contract. The phone itself is a different matter - buying from a catalogue is not the same sort of credit agreement, they won't care who you gave the phone to. Technically you could argue the phone belongs to you so you might be able to take action to get that back at least. When they say it's been passed to a debt collection agency, more often than not it hasn't. Most of these debt collectors are simply people working within the same company as the one you owe money to - they use it as a scare tactic, it actually costs a lot of money to send an account to a proper debt collector. If you can't afford anything at all there are a number of steps you can take, the worst case (and it would be the last resort) is a debt relief order or bankruptcy. CCCS will talk you through all the options. It's very unlikely you are going to have bailiffs turn up to take possessions, doesn't usually work like that with this sort of debt. And ultimately if you haven't got it, they can't take it! Some harsh lessons to learn here - don't ever take out credit for someone else no matter who they are or how much you trust them. He's not a real friend. I hope you get this sorted.