Husbands debts transferred on my credit cards

north_in_debt

Dear All. I know I have been really REALLY stupid but a while ago my husband let me know he was heavily in debt. I wanted to help him and transferred some of his high interest credit cards onto my low rate credit cards with the arrangement he would pay me back when he could. We have since seperated and I am struggling financially. He is now being very difficult about paying these debts back. Can I use the small claims court to try and get this money back? Has anyone ever done something like this and been successful? I don't know what else to do.

[Deleted User]

Unfortunately not. It's now your debt. Whether any of it can be untangled in the whole separation legal process I don't know, but for now it's yours.

suburbanwifey

north_in_debt wrote: »

Dear All. I know I have been really REALLY stupid but a while ago my husband let me know he was heavily in debt. I wanted to help him and transferred some of his high interest credit cards onto my low rate credit cards with the arrangement he would pay me back when he could. We have since seperated and I am struggling financially. He is now being very difficult about paying these debts back. Can I use the small claims court to try and get this money back? Has anyone ever done something like this and been successful? I don't know what else to do.

Actually, this post makes me quite sad...its not really stupid to pass debts of this kind between married couples to take advantage of Life of Balance offers or 0% offers....

What is sad is that a) your marriage has ended, that wasn't and isn't supposed to be in the plan of getting married and b) a man who was your husband, who you did a financial favour for should turn out to be such a (insert rude word here) !!!!!!!

It seems he has no morals by refusing to pay or by making it all sound so difficult...seems to me you are better off without someone like that, he is showing his true colours by doing this.

I hope this sad 'rare' occurrence doesn't stop other married couples doing the same to save money

I feel for you....his loss hon, not yours.

On the subject of the money - you transferred to your cards and thus the debt is yours, you have no claim whatsoever in the small claims court sadly..There is an ethical claim, but not a legal one.

I hope karma catches up with him!

CLAPTON

the small claims court is a possibility but it would probably depend upon what sort of evidence you have of the arrangement i.e. it was not a gift but he fully intended to repay you.

suburbanwifey

CLAPTON wrote: »

the small claims court is a possibility but it would probably depend upon what sort of evidence you have of the arrangement i.e. it was not a gift but he fully intended to repay you.

Yes, if he had signed something agreeing to the fact that he was transferring money to her debt and that he would pay it back, signed with a signature that couldn't be disputed. He sounds like the kind of man that didn't do this though, sadly. This is why a claim will be very difficult to win, if not impossible...but also, should it be possible, if he is heavily in debt already, had CCJ's etc, his likelihood of paying any judgment is tiny, or he could arrange to pay 50p a week etc....costs her money to take him to court, he still fails to pay, she is still in same situation. Without signed agreement, waste of time for her.

inmypocketnottheirs

Also it may well be that you would have to prove that the debt he incurred on the cards was purely for his own benefit and not joint. For example if it was for food shopping, utilities, holidays, tv's etc, he could argue that half of the debt is yours anyway. However, that would likely be the case if you were to divorce.

CLAPTON

suburbanwifey wrote: »

Yes, if he had signed something agreeing to the fact that he was transferring money to her debt and that he would pay it back, signed with a signature that couldn't be disputed. He sounds like the kind of man that didn't do this though, sadly. This is why a claim will be very difficult to win, if not impossible...but also, should it be possible, if he is heavily in debt already, had CCJ's etc, his likelihood of paying any judgment is tiny, or he could arrange to pay 50p a week etc....costs her money to take him to court, he still fails to pay, she is still in same situation. Without signed agreement, waste of time for her.

In UK law, except for property, a verbal contract is legally binding.
However in practice it is hard to establish the facts about a verbal contract but that doesn't change the law.

suburbanwifey

CLAPTON wrote: »

In UK law, except for property, a verbal contract is legally binding.
However in practice it is hard to establish the facts about a verbal contract but that doesn't change the law.

That sounds a good law, however, how on earth do they decide who's telling the truth if one says one thing, the other the other...ie: if he lies?

As this law exists then, I'd say go for it, nail his !!! to the table in the small claims court, he deserves it, but still, she may only get 50p a week! just because a judgment is issued, doesn't mean it will be paid!

Voyager2002

In practice, not that many people can lie convincingly in court. And there might be circumstantial evidence to confirm the OP's account of the agreement. Come to that, the husband might not attempt to deny it.

The fundamental problem is that he may well be being "difficult" about paying up because he is short of money, in which a court order would not be that much use.

OP: for now I suggest you see if you can discuss the problem with him by email or text message. Ask him in a friendly manner if he could pay something towards his debts, and how long he expects it to be before he can make any substantial repayments. Quite likely his replies will confirm that he owes the money: then all you have to do is save them and later produce them in court. Whether or not you use 'small claims' to try to get the money from him, the divorce process is likely to include a review of both your finances and a division of shared assets, and it would be useful to ensure that these debts are included in that process.

chattychappy

CLAPTON wrote: »

In UK law, except for property, a verbal contract is legally binding.
However in practice it is hard to establish the facts about a verbal contract but that doesn't change the law.

Verbal is not enough when it's husband and wife. There is a rebuttable presumption against an intent to make legal relations in a domestic agreement. Balfour v Balfour [1919] 2 KB 571. Ie it's assumed you're not serious - you can't enforce what you agreed.

You can overcome the presumption. The most obvious way is to get it down in writing and witnessed (get advice though). But this is all after the horse has bolted stuff. For those that are interested, they can google the above case - there are a number of other cases too (Merritt v Merritt [1970] 1 WLR 1211 is one where an agreement was enforced.)

The logic behind this is principle and pragmatism. 1) The courts generally feel that promises inside families are not intended to be legally binding. 2) It would be so hard to unpick these agreements anyway - often ill-defined and complex.

The only way to sort this kind of thing is as part of a divorce type settlement, as discussed earlier.

For now, the debt is firmly with the OP.