I’ve never used a credit card, yet I owe Barclaycard £6,000

N.T. writes: For more than three years, I have been hassled by Link Financial, wanting me to part with almost £6,000. Statement after statement says I owe £5,897, borrowed from Barclaycard. But I have never even used a credit card, nor obtained any loan, except my mortgage with Halifax. Link will never receive a penny from me, but am I to put up with this for the rest of my life?

ACCORDING to Barclaycard, your account was opened in October 2012 but was used only up to December of that year, when the card company says you made one payment towards the balance due. In August 2013, Barclaycard sold to Link the right to collect whatever it could from you, though you do not appear to have heard from Link until 2016.

I had hoped that Barclaycard could produce your application, but apparently it was made online, so was never signed. And your bank statements for 2012 show no record of any payment to Barclaycard, deepening the mystery.

Even more curious is that Barclaycard told me it spoke to you on the phone in 2013, and you allegedly said you were in difficulties with your creditors. But when it called back, the number was unavailable. The most obvious explanation is that someone stole your identity back in 2012 and went on a preChristmas shopping spree before vanishing.

Link did not offer any comment, but I can report that it has an address for you in Manchester, where you have never lived.

In light of this, Barclaycard has now written off the debt entirely and informed Link.

The debt was shown on your credit agency file, but this has been removed and you should hear no more about it.

If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Because of the high volume of enquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send only copies of original documents, which we regret cannot be returned.