Taking on a partners debt 24 February 2019 at 11:16PM in Debt-free wannabe 9 replies 1.2K views

Gj1984

Is there a way that I can have my wife's debt transferred to me? We are at the point where her wages are pretty much going on her cards/loans etc. Ideally, id like to make an arrangement with her debtors to pay her stuff off over a period of time. Her name is on a mortgage with her mum. Some of her debt is my fault as I am a recovered gambler so I feel responsible for it and want to get to a stage where her wages are her own instead of this debt eating away at it.

fatbelly

There's nothing to stop you paying someone else's debt but actually transferring liability is not possible without a court order.

Gj1984

What's the chances of talking them into receiving less money per month? It's unmanageable right now.

sourcrates

Gj1984 wrote: »

What's the chances of talking them into receiving less money per month? It's unmanageable right now.

You should contact one of the free debt charities are ask about a debt management plan, other options are trying to increase income, reduce outgoings, better budgeting etc.

katsu

If you can get a credit card in your own name, for example. or a loan, you can use it to pay the outstanding balance of a debt in her name. That moves the debt from her owing money to credit card company A, to you owing money to credit card company B. So, it is possible for her to have less debt and you to have more debt.

However, as Sourcrates says, it sounds like the issue is bigger, that you and your partner are struggling to make ends meet and you need to get advice/consider the whole problem. Do consider looking in the debt free diaries section at the thread(s) about stopping gambling. I think they offer good support to people who have had gambling problems.

chelseablue

I did a balance transfer from my husbands credit card (24% interest) to mine when I had a 0% balance transfer offer. Was £1,700

A few months later he ran up a £1,000 overdraft but that's a whole other thread :rotfl:

At least I learnt a valuable lesson, wont be transferring debt in his name to mine ever again

EssexHebridean

If you are essentially happy to view this debt as a joint project to deal with then I'd suggest perhaps putting together a SOA (Statement of affairs) and posting that into this thread, we can take a look, tell you the best way of tackling things and perhaps also identify any savings you might be able to make on your joint outgoings to get it shifted quicker. Would that help? If so then the link to the SOA calculator is within my signature.

WhenIam64

If you can get a credit card in your own name, for example. or a loan, you can use it to pay the outstanding balance of a debt in her name

There is a potential downside to this based on what happens next. If someone takes out credit and then defaults on it and needs to go bankrupt, then the creditor could argue fraud if they take out debt which they had no intention of [fully] repaying it when borrowed.

It depends on the intent of the credit (which should realistically be called debt in another form)

Niv

What is stopping you putting money into her account to help pay it off?

EssexHebridean

Niv wrote: »

What is stopping you putting money into her account to help pay it off?

The better approach on this would be pooling resources financially if the OP is content to do that (as it appears he is) as simply giving someone money to clear debt rarely results in them learning from the experience. It is the process of dealing with the situation that usually does most to instill the feeling of "I don;t want to go there again" in people.