Balance transfer to clear a spouse's card...

vexta13

Hello,
I wonder if anyone might have experience of a similar situation and could advise? My wife and I currently have 4 credit cards between us. Two are on 0% balance transfer deals (Lloyds and Barclaycard), which are in my wife's name and one is a spending card, which unfortunately we've built up a 4k debt on. This card is in my name. It's starting to cause problems as this is on 17.9% (soon to go up to 21%!) This is obviously unsustainable... I can't do a balance transfer myself to clear this card as I've got a low credit score and low income, so my wife has just applied for and got our fourth card (a Santander card with 0% balance transfer for 15 months and £7,000 credit limit).

Plan A. was to try to clear the spending card's balance but we've since been told by Santander that they can't balance transfer to a card in a different name (as in, mine...)

So, plan B. was to try to transfer much more than the balance on one of the other 0% cards and get them to send us a cheque for the excess, which we could then use to clear the spending.
Anyway, that's not gonna work as neither Barclaycard nor Lloyds were having any of it and Barclays even said when we tried to ask, that if we tried that we would be contacted by the fraud prevention team as it sounded like money laundering! Eh... How?!?!

So we're a bit stumped. Does anyone know a way around this?

Thanks in advance.
V.

BenL

I have BT'd my wifes credit cards to my own, however I did it online when doing the application. The new CC firm just sent the money across to the wifes credit card to clear it. I think all they asked for is the number.

There is no "real" reason why they should not do it.

I'd just get online and do it, don't bother asking the staff.

I used Capital One for the one I did and we BT'd from MBNA and HSBC I think to it.

All no problem at all.

sfax

Most CCs allow transfers in different names but Santander don't. The AML regs won't let you deliberately put accounts in credit. Apply for a new BT card from a different lender but ask the lender first if they will allow a BT from a different name

vexta13

Thanks for this advice. The only thing I'm a bit worried about is, wouldn't applying for a new card so soon affect my wife's credit rating? We're hoping to re-fix our mortgage again in the new year and keen not to have the decision swayed by a lower credit score.