left with huge credit card bill

[erikajane]

My ex-fiance and I took out a credit card to pay household bills. As he was at the time unemployed and therefore unable to get credit it was placed in my name. We later split and despite sending me text messages confirming he will pay half he now refuses to. Is there anything I can do to make him pay?

[Loosehead]

Can you clarify, is the card entirely in your name? Did you have to sign for purchases etc?

If so then the credit is in your name, you have only his verbal agreement, if he is as I suspect, without honour then you are stuck with it.

[erikajane]

card entirely in my name - as he could not get credit at the time.

[Killerschick]

I'm afraid suing him yourself is the only answer. The credit card company could not pursue him even if they wanted to.

As to whether taking proceedings against him is worth it will depend whether you will have any means of enforcement if you get a CCJ against him. Does he have a stable PAYE job? This would enable you to attach his earnings but would mean you get paid in instalments rather than getting a lump sum to pay back the debt. If he owns a house you can get a charging order but you would probably have to wait til he sold or remortgaged before you got your money. If you know he has savings you can get a third party debt order which makes the money payable to you but you need very specific details of how much he has and where. Finally there's bailiffs & bankruptcy, neither of which are particularly effective unless he has assets eg a flash car.

[funnywebsite]

This was a silly thing to do and now you have learnt the hard way. You might have to just pay it all yourself.

There is the small claims court but I tried to sue someone once and they were useless. She did not turn up to court and the bailiffs went round to her house, she was not at home and they sent me a letter stating they wanted even more money to try again. It was costing me more than the money I was owed.

I would not trust anybody with a shared card. Next time get the money off them by cash or cheque and pay it into your account and then pay the bills that way, with you just being the card holder.

I have been conned by someone myself not with a credit card but someone I was living with who I was giving rent money to and they were pocketing it instead of paying the rent. They walked out and I found I owed lots of back rent because they were spending it instead of paying the landlady.