Should I take out a credit card for my boyfriend's debt?

Ducky101

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dirtysexymonkey

no no no no no no no no no no no no!!!!!

skylight

"Would it be sensible"?

If you have to ask, you know the answer. It is never sensible to take on someone elses debt. You can help him repay his debt if you want, but never transfer debt into your name.

You trust him 100% today and long may that continue. But none of us have a crystal ball and no-one knows what tomorrow brings.

Your BF needs to learn how to sort out his own money. You can help him with that and encourage him not to spend but shift that debt, but doing it for him is never going to teach him anything other than being reliant on someone else.

krlyr

No idea on what the best way forward is financially but I would say, trust or not, get the arrangement down on paper to protect yourself. It's not nice to have to discuss the "what if we split" possibility but it is naive not to. Even if you trust him 100% to never cheat on you, people change - his feelings could change, your feelings could change, he could get the desire to travel the world but you want to stay home, etc.
You're generous to offer helping him out so he shouldn't take offense to the deal being arranged properly with a legally binding contract that states exactly how the debt would be paid off, who's responsible, what happens if you split, etc. - I'm doing it with my OH as we're buying a house together, and realistically if we split up we both agree it should be done fairly, i.e. judged on who's contributed what financially (we split the chores and won't have kids so at least it simplifies it to financial contribution!)

magenta22

Okay speaking from experience here. I did this for someone, I ended up in debt myself.

There are other avenues he can go down to sort it out by himself.

crazyguy

magenta22 wrote: »

Okay speaking from experience here. I did this for someone, I ended up in debt myself.

There are other avenues he can go down to sort it out by himself.

Yes get him to make a payment plan for his debts do not under any circumstances take out a card in your own name and pay them off as you will in the likely event come unstuck.

Tygermoth

No! Dont do it!

See this thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/76953

Please heed the masses..

DVardysShadow

Ducky101 wrote: »

.... He owes between £3-£4000 on various credit cards and loans and makes regular payments. One credit card is particularly troublesome, as the interest rate is so high, and the amount just never seems to come down. We are hoping to be able to buy a house in a few years time if we can save enough, so we are both desperate for him to clear the debt so that he can help me to save for a deposit.

Debt can be infectious. Many people take debt on for a partner and end up in debt themselves. With your boyfriend, things may be fine now, but the real test is whether or not he settles down and deals with his debt. If you take it on, it is all too easy for him and he could go on to rack up more, possibly in your name.

Now, you did not say what his credit record is like. If he has defaults, you need to be doubly careful to keep your credit record squeaky clean.

As ever, the strategy is to pay minimums on all cards except the one with highest interest, to which he should throw every spare penny. Is he doing this?

knithappens

no , no no. It is his debt, his responsibility, so many people have been bitten by people they thought they could trust, just dont do it.

lindsaygalaxy

I did this, few years later and a couple of kids, I was bankrupt and he left me to be with someone else. Nomatter how much you trust someone do not take on their spending habits, it can snowball, you just never know. Do you live together already? Help him pay it off if you must, but dont take it on.

euronorris

Ducky101 wrote: »

Hi all, sorry if this is in the wrong forum, I'm a newbie

I'm hoping to get some advice about what to do with my boyfriend's current debts.

He owes between £3-£4000 on various credit cards and loans and makes regular payments. One credit card is particularly troublesome, as the interest rate is so high, and the amount just never seems to come down. We are hoping to be able to buy a house in a few years time if we can save enough, so we are both desperate for him to clear the debt so that he can help me to save for a deposit.

Couple of things:

Why is the amount not going down? How much does he owe on each card, how much is the interest on each card, and how much is he repaying each month?

Once you and he know these things it will be much easier to tackle the debts.

Start by repaying as much as possible each month, to the card with the highest interest rate. Once that's cleared, you move onto the next highest and so on, until they are all gone. This is called snowballing and is the quickest and cheapest way to get ride of CC debt.

This website should help you: http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

It will allow him to put in all his debts, the interest on them, and how much he can afford to put towards his debts each month. It will then tell you which to pay the most to, and how much should go to each debt each month. It's very useful!

Now, i've gathered from MSE that having a credit card and paying in full monthly can help with my credit score for when it comes to applying for a mortgage, so this is something i've been considering recently. I have no debt except a student loan and I have never had any other type of loan or a credit card, and I know i could get an 'interest free for 12 months' type credit card if I applied for one (my bank keeps offering it to me).

Having a CC, which you pay off in full each month, will help to boost your credit rating. But having his debt on there, which (presumably) you can't pay off all in one go, might not do anything positive at all.

So...my question is, would it be sensible for me to take out a credit card so that we could transfer some of my boyfriend's debt onto it and enable him to pay it off quicker? I trust him 100% so that is not an issue. I'm just worried that having a debt in my name would harm rather than improve my credit rating? Or would it have no effect whatsoever? (As you can tell I'm a bit clueless about how these things work!)

No, I don't think it would be sensible. I think it would be sensible for you to sit down together and work out how best he can tackle his debts. At the moment, the comment earlier of 'they just don't seem to be going down' is ringing alarm bells for me. It suggests that he is only paying minimum payments each month. Why is he doing that and not overpaying? Can he not afford to pay anymore (in which case that won't change anytime soon)? Or is he choosing to spend his money on other stuff (which suggests he hasn't changed his bad habits with money yet)?

He has the debts, and he needs to address the issues/reasons behind the debt.

To be clear, this is all my idea, my boyfriend has never suggested putting his debt in my name...i'm just trying to think of ways to get him out of debt and into saving

Are you sure he would be comfortable with it in that case?

Any opinions welcome x

Until you have sat down together, come up with a repayment plan, and he has stuck to it for at least 6 months, I wouldn't even consider putting any of the debt into your name. It's far too risky.

I get the impression that you want to be saving asap, but you (and he) need to realise and accept that this is just not going to happen as quickly as you like. It took him a while to build up the debt, and it's going to take some time to get rid of it.

I'm afraid this is going to be an exercise in patience for you.

Good luck.

xx