Clearing cards etc

tommytynan123

I'm about to ''loan'' son some cash to clear his credit card and store card (£2.2K) Not behind with payments but they are 'tweaking' his spare cash. Works f/t - net pay about £1000pcm. Part of the deal is that he hands me 2 x cards where they are quarantined for min 4 months.
Over the years I have read some very interesting approaches to clearing cards / debts linked to credit file !!
Q - should he pay them off to £0 balance or is there a reason for keeping a small balance (£50?) and paying bit more than the minimum every month.
Sounds a daft Q but I had this alarm bell ringing when I was planning this loan
Thanks

(Oh and 2nd son is about to hand me my 1st grandchild so I'll be poor forever :rotfl: Using ebay I have just furnished his house for under £300 - good old ebay)

ellesbellesxxx

I would pay them off completely and close the accounts, that way removing the ability to use them again

ellesbellesxxx

Ps congrats on almost being a Grandparent!

poppasmurf_bewdley

Duplicate post. Already on the Loans Forum.

asparagus1968

i worry about things like this.

i'd pay it all off,keep his cards,and ask for the statements each month for a year.

this way,he won't be able to get any more cards behind your back(as he'll already have these two open) and you can see he has not spent on them looking at the statements.in a year he will have learnt to budget etc and hopefully have learnt the lesson.

don't mean to make him sound untrustworthy by the way!!just think he is really lucky,in that he could come to you with this problem,and he can get help

rdchick

Is this really going to help him in the long run? Personally what I would do is take the cards but encourage him to pay them off, even if it's at minimum payments and you slyly pay a little bit extra off without him knowing... orrr pay them off in full but get him to pay you back interest free (like the minimum payments until he gets to £2.2K) he is a lucky lad to have a parent like you! (congrats on becoming a grandparent too) xxx