u/steelerswins

I am/was in the market to buy my very first home. We ran my credit report and I didn’t look too deeply into it and started making payments on some things I owed to boost my credit.

However I took a closer look when I was validating everything was paid and noticed 5 transactions that had my name on them but I had no records or memories of owing this money.

I opened up an account for the LCC who owns the debt and found my Dads first and middle name, his address, and phone numbers. With all 5 accounts totaled up it is around 5k worth of debt.

Steps I’ve taken so far.

- Freeze credit on all three credit companies (Transunion, Equifax, and Experian)
- Put a fraud alert on all three as well.
-I’ve taken screenshots of all debts and balances alongside my dad’s personal information attached to these debts.
-I am filing a police report today and once done I will be filing a report online with FTC
- (Edit) I have also disputed all 5 transactions with the LCC and will be attaching the FTC and police report once done.

That’s all I’ve got so far and don’t really know what to do next and how to really handle this situation.

I contacted my brother and he is in the same boat. He currently owes almost 10k to different lenders because of my dad.

My dad has done this to me before when I was younger. When i turned 18 I discovered a 3k debt for DirectTV. An account that was open when I was 15. I was young and didn’t care about my credit so I just waited and let it fall off on its own.

I’m pushing 30 years old now. I don’t even live in the same state as him and he still did this to me.

I am currently creating a Personal Finance workbook using Microsoft Forms and Excel.

My main question before I explain the build is. Am i wasting my time using Forms? Is there a better method to streamline information into Excel? I tend to forget to do things so I wanted the fastest easiest method to log data.

Also has anyone else done something like this using Forms? I’m aware there’s millions of Finance books on the web. I’m using some as inspiration. I honestly just wanted to create my own because I enjoy using Excel.

The goal here is to make everything on the Excel sheet automatic.

Current Build-
1- Input Data using Forms survey.
2- Data is imputed to a Raw Transaction sheet
3- Filters into a Clean Transaction sheet
4- Filters into multiple sheets from here ranging from Accounts, Bills, Bill status (this sheet tracks due dates, amounts, paid or not paid), Monthly summary, and debt visibility. (Long story short Clean transactions filters all the data into separate dedicated sheets for different type of transactions.)
5- Dashboard where everything is cleanly viewed.

Overall it takes 5-10 seconds to input data through the Forms. Created a Shortcut on my Phone to create easier access. As of right now it is fully automated with only 1 source of input.

I’m not posting the build yet because it’s in very early stages still. Overall the input system and formulas work.

Future features that are in the works but not completed or not started are:
1: Bank CSV import system.
this should use a helper sheet to map each merchant by bank statement names, auto bill recognition in case i forget to submit something, Auto account balances (I would be thinking of inputting the CSV files monthly?)
2: Mortgage readiness
3: Emergency fund goals
4: Debt-To-Income analysis

Overall do yall have any advice for this project? Is forms the best choice for this long term?