Protection re partner's debts

SeduLOUs

Hi,

I'm the one with the money head and am sorting out all of our finances, but unfortunately I'm also the one with a 4 year old default affecting my file and I can't always access the perfect cards!

We have about £4k of debt that we have accrued together as a couple, and until recently it has been fairly equally split as to whose name the debt is actually in.

Partner has now been accepted for a nice fat 0% BT card which is absolutely ideal for shifting the whole lot to, but I am concerned about his personal 'risk' should something happen to our couple status.

For his benefit I'd like to write up and sign something that he can keep as a means to recover 50% of any debt balance from me if the worst should happen, but at the same time I don't want to leave it open ended in case he goes on a spending spree with a young blonde and then sues me for half the cost!

Is it more hassle than it's worth and should we just go on trust? Or should I write up something specifically relating to the current balances and update it and reissue it monthly?

He's not particularly bothered to be honest, it's more my idea - I don't feel completely comfortable putting him in a potentially vulnerable position if the worst should happen. Hopefully it will all be cleared within a year and won't even be relevant anymore.

Opinions, thoughts welcome.

Tixy

It may be more hassle than it is worth, especially as he is not bothered.
-But-
If you wanted to do something - how will you be making payments? will you make a payment in to his account that he will then pay to the card? or will you make a payment from your account straight to the card? (or do you have a joint bank account)?

You could just write out that £x of the balance on the new card at [today's date] is considered by yourselves as a joint debt. Any further spending or balance transfers after today's date on the card are personal to [him]. Any payments made to the account by either of you will first pay off the joint balance.


As an aside - if he is not very clued up with finances does he know not to use it for any monthly spending as he will be charged interest (unless it is also 0% on purchases)?

SeduLOUs

Tixy wrote: »

It may be more hassle than it is worth, especially as he is not bothered.
-But-
If you wanted to do something - how will you be making payments? will you make a payment in to his account that he will then pay to the card? or will you make a payment from your account straight to the card? (or do you have a joint bank account)?

You could just write out that £x of the balance on the new card at [today's date] is considered by yourselves as a joint debt. Any further spending or balance transfers after today's date on the card are personal to [him]. Any payments made to the account by either of you will first pay off the joint balance.


As an aside - if he is not very clued up with finances does he know not to use it for any monthly spending as he will be charged interest (unless it is also 0% on purchases)?

Thank you, this is very helpful and will use your guideline as the basis for the note which means I won't have to update it unless we make a joint decision to increase the debt (extremely unlikely!).

He is getting far more clued up with finances now and does understand what APRs mean, and why the BT card is definitely beneficial to our current position but does temporarily put him in a position of risk (although it' not masses of money that he's going to go bankrupt about even if the worst happened!)

He won't need to do anything silly like spend on it because we have cashback CCs for that and he now knows which ones to use and when, so he is on board with everything and knows our general position, but he lets me get on with the everyday nitty gritty.