Love's Gone And All That's Left Is The Monthly Bill

Alas, relationships come and go. That's why couples who aren't married and mix their financial lives together often end up regretting it.

Michelle, of Hypoluxo, Fla., certainly does. She's been an AT&T Wireless subscriber for years. Her boyfriend, however, opened a family account with T-Mobile using Michelle's credit card.

Left holding the bill

Now the relationship has ended, but Michelle finds that her credit card is being charged from $248 to $500 a month to pay for her ex-boyfriend's family cellphone plan.

“On three separate occasions I called and requested my card be removed from their automatic payment system,” Michelle told ConsumerAffairs.com. “ I informed them that it is illegally being charged for my ex-boyfriend and his family's account.”

T-Mobile told Michelle to go online and remove it. Of course, that's a huge Catch-22, because she can't. It's not her account, it's her ex-boyfriend's. He's the only one who can remove it.

“The only reason why I have not reported the fraud is that my ex-boyfriend would be held responsible, although he may deserve that,” Michelle said.

In fact, T-Mobile may be facing just as much of a Catch-22 as Michelle is. Once an account is set up, only the account's owner – or those authorized to log into the account – are allowed to make changes. The company can't do it on its own.

Solutions

The best way for Michelle to resolve this issue is to appeal to her ex-boyfriend, in the interest of fairness and old times sake, to replace her credit card with his own. She says she has already paid thousands of dollars and is justifiably angry.

If a reasonable appeal to her ex-beau doesn't work, Michelle could contact her credit card company and dispute the monthly charge.  That should do the trick, but if it doesn't, she may have to simply cancel her credit card. If the account is in her ex-boyfriend's name, and not hers, he will end up taking the hit on his credit report when the account goes unpaid.

The take-home lesson here, of course, is never use your credit card to pay for someone's cellphone account unless you're related.