moral dilema, should i borrow off my 5year old?

Tixy

Any money you have saved for him, or gifts you have given him yourself I would say use the money and repay it back (like others with a slight overpayment)

I would only exercise caution on any of the money that was gifts from other relatives and particularly (if it happened to be relevant) gifts from his other parent's side of the family should you not be in a relationship with the other parent or from anyone who you know would not want you to do this with his money.

Thats simply in case anything should happen that meant you couldn't pay him back (eg if you lost your income or something).

skylight

I don't see this as a moral issue - rather one of practicality.

He doesn't know about the money in the first place.
You are being charged a stupid rate of interest that you wont find in any savings account!
It will be quicker to "pay back" your son than the credit card.

Just do it and get rid of the card. Set up a SO into your sons account. There isn't anything wrong with it.


Look on the flip side. You put most of the money in there. And if you were to claim any benefits then the money has to be declared as it's deemed to be yours anyway (until he is 18).

It's not as if you are planning a jolly holiday with it with no intention of putting it back.

doodledoodle24

Wow! Thankyou for all of your replies. I have read all of them and agree that the best option is to borrow and pay it back. The cc did pay for an emergency, stupid really, when I sat and worked out what my interest would be I didn't get £50 a month. My maths is terrible! I'm going to set up a standing order for £130 a month and pay him back with interest. I like what was said about telling him when he is older. It still does not feel right to borrow from him but your all right in I'm paying more than earning on it! Thankyou again for all your advise, it is greatly appreciated. Xx

adouglasmhor

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

If you kept up the £150 per month it's going to take over 10 years to pay your son back for raiding the savings account.

But it is daft to be paying interest when you have savings.

Not sure of the legal aspects of using "your son's" money in this way.

£1300 ÷150 = 8.66r
So less than 9 months to repay the capital.

immoral_angeluk

I would use it if I was desperate, but I would replace it ASAP and with a fair amount of interest!

Curt.

doodledoodle24 wrote: »

Wow! Thankyou for all of your replies. I have read all of them and agree that the best option is to borrow and pay it back. The cc did pay for an emergency, stupid really, when I sat and worked out what my interest would be I didn't get £50 a month. My maths is terrible! I'm going to set up a standing order for £130 a month and pay him back with interest. I like what was said about telling him when he is older. It still does not feel right to borrow from him but your all right in I'm paying more than earning on it! Thankyou again for all your advise, it is greatly appreciated. Xx

One thing that hasn't been said that goes without saying i guess is, don't wind up in the same situation again where your CC debt spirals out of control. You got a "Get out of jail free card" this time, don't make the same mistake again.

ElkyElky

Who cares whether its moral or not. He's certainly not going to miss the money any time soon, so enjoy the money and make sure you don't get back in to this situation again. As long as it's repaid by the time he is 18 (I assume he'll be getting it when he's 18??) that's all that matters.

As for telling him when he's all grown up.. b***ocks. Do you think he'll care in the slightest that his mother took a few hundred from his money pot many years ago to help her get out of a bad situation then later repaid it? If it's repaid plus interest, there will be nothing to tell him and he certainly wouldn't be affected by it.

Curt.

Also think of a totally different scenario for a flip side in which he same situation occured but you didn't take the money for now and repay it later. Say it led to further problems with credit, defaults and or possibly losing your home or something. (Not sure it would come to that for such a low level of debt of course). How would he feel when he did grow up knowing his money (given to him, by you) could have saved your family from such difficulties?

Just something to think about.

hermum

Borrow from the lad, pay back by DD with a higher rate of interest than he would have earned if it was just sat there. But cut up the credit card, so that you can't get into the same situation again.

aliasojo

ElkyElky wrote: »

As for telling him when he's all grown up.. b***ocks. Do you think he'll care in the slightest that his mother took a few hundred from his money pot many years ago to help her get out of a bad situation then later repaid it? If it's repaid plus interest, there will be nothing to tell him and he certainly wouldn't be affected by it.

I agree.