Other person's debt transfer

GANYMEDE23

Newbie to board, don't even know if this is correct place for this particular thread & wondered if someone could help.
My son has contacted me in a state saying that he's run up over £30K debt on credit card.
At present, I have no credit card debt, good credit card rating & wondered if I could apply for 0% balance credit cards & then transfer his debt onto my new card(s) & pay it off over a period of time.
Realise I would be liable for the debt, but I am able to pay it off in one go, if need be, but would rather pay it off over time.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

spadoosh

Some companies allow balance transfers between people. Halifax wherent really bothered that my OH did a balance transfer to my name. Although others wont do it. If you speak to the lender before applying they should let you know.

The other option is a money transfer card. Same as a balance transfer but allows you to deposit money in a conventional account rather than limited to credit card.

Try and ensure hes tackling the root cause of the increasing debt otherwise bailing him out now will be fruitless.

p.s. you should recommend to him spending some time on this forum.

Willing2Learn

Hi GANYMEDE23 and welcome to the forum

No way would I recommend doing that. Signpost your son to these boards and get your son to post up his Statement of Affairs (SOA) on the Debt-Free Wannabe forum.

[Deleted User]

GANYMEDE23 wrote: »

Newbie to board, don't even know if this is correct place for this particular thread & wondered if someone could help.
My son has contacted me in a state saying that he's run up over £30K debt on credit card.
At present, I have no credit card debt, good credit card rating & wondered if I could apply for 0% balance credit cards & then transfer his debt onto my new card(s) & pay it off over a period of time.
Realise I would be liable for the debt, but I am able to pay it off in one go, if need be, but would rather pay it off over time.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Credit Card Rating? That's a new one

If you want to take ownership of the debts and repayments (which you will do if you transfer it to a card in your name) then you first need to use an eligibility checker to see what you qualify for.

Or, you need to let your son tackle this head on and learn from his mistakes.

Dobbibill

Welcome to the forum.

While it is possible to transfer from his card to yours with some lenders (especially only those who ask for the card number as part of the process) it's probably not the best option.

I agree with Willing2Learn - visit the DFW board with your son and get him to complete a SOA.

He is young enough to learn from this and addressing the reason for the debt may prevent it happening again in the future. Bailing him out may not deliver the same life lessons. There are other ways to support your son like morally, directing him to this board etc without getting involved financially.

Whatever you decide, I wish you all the best.

sleepyjones

Moreso than the advice noted above, you don't want to set a precedent, I know it's your son and it's tough ... but this is one of lifes lessons that he needs to learn on his own.

If you take all of the responsibility then there's nothing to say it won't happen again because he knows he has "get out of jail free" card (You would probably think "He wouldn't do that", but then you'd also probably have thought "My son wouldn't get into £30k debt on credit cards").

Bit of tough love needed here I think.

lisyloo

Having been through something similar with a nephew.
My advice would be not to bail him out.
My nephew just continued to get bailed out by mother and grandparents.
He didn’t learn anything until the bailing out stopped.

Offer him help though starting with SOA I’m dealing with debt board.

lopsyfa

I agree with all the advice above. Just to add that if your son has little or no assets, he could actually go bankrupt and you save the 30k. In about 6 years, it will drop off his credit report and he can start all over. Within the six years, he won't have access to any credit which will teach him to live within his means and help him to address the root cause of the problem.

Even if he has assets, he can usually enter into some forms of repayment arrangements with his lenders. Ask him to post an SOA here and people can give better advice.

Bailing him out is just delaying the inevitable and I won't be surprised if he comes back to you asking for bailout for larger debts in the future.

sourcrates

I actually agree with the advice above, either let him tackle this himself, either through repayment, if thats possible, or bankrupcy, the tendancy to "run to dad" when the sh*t hits the fan is a common one.

But, and for no other reason than to play devils advocate, if you were intent on paying it, you would not need to apply for further borrowing in order to "transfer the debt to yourself", you can simply make payments, over time if you wish, to his account, using your prefered payment method, bank transfer would be my choice, remove the card from him, so it can`t be used again, that way liability stays with him, so it will not affect your credit profile in any way, shape or form.

GANYMEDE23

Thanks for all the replies & suggestions.
It's difficult to sit by & watch him panic over this, as he's married with kids & has a house & mortgage so could end up losing everything.
Hopefully he's up for posting a SOA on the debt board.
Thanks once again to one & all & hopefully he'll sort himself out & learn an important lesson.

Candyapple

GANYMEDE23 wrote: »

My son has contacted me in a state saying that he's run up over £30K debt on credit card.

Running up £30k on cards didn't happen overnight. Sorry but your son sounds like a user - got himself in way over his head and is now running to bank of mum and dad to make things better.

Agree with other posters, tough love needed here to force your son some hard life lessons. He spent it, he either needs to come to agreements with his lenders to make repayments or sort out a debt management programme / go bankrupt. He needs to learn that there are consequences to your actions - otherwise be prepared to have mug tattooed on your forehead whilst your son never learns anything about responsibility and keeps coming back to you for more and more money.

Why should the onus be on you to clear his debts for him? £30k isn't exactly a small sum of money.

Even if you think you are helping by clearing his debt / taking out a loan or 0% card to clear it and that your son will be making monthly repayments – my advice again would be don’t do it. Just have a read of the loans board which is littered with threads of where family members have lent money to their nearest and dearest with all kinds of hardship expressed initially and a couple of payments being made, only for the debtor to stop payments of any kind and completely cutting off said family member since they had served their purpose. Those people too thought that their relatives would never ever do that to them.