1 large balance transfer or 2 small ones?

ColoursOfTheWind

Hi all,

First post on here. My parents have a debt of £13,000 on their joint credit card. They recently told me that they pay around £500 a month in interest :eek: This has been going on for some time! I've offered to help them do an interest free balance transfer as I've done them in the past for my own, smaller debts.

Are they best to transfer the whole £13,000 in one go or would it be better to split it into two £6,500 transfers? Would my Mum need to apply for one of them and my Dad do the other? If so, would they both be able to take advantage of the same offer or would they need to use separate banks/offers to each other? My Dad earns significantly more than my Mum (may be relevant).

As you can see, I know very little on the matter other than how to physically transfer the balance. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Ben8282

There is no such thing as a joint credit card. The account will be in the name of one or the other of your parents. The other parent will be just an additional cardholder.
The amount of interest stated is excessive. Whatever is the APR on this card? Can you verify that they really are being charged this much interest.
I know nothing of their credit history or how many credit cards each of them has or how much total debt they have, but I hve a feeling that with £13,000 interest bearing debt on one card with what must be a very high APR, they are going to find it an uphill struggle to obtain new balance transfer cards to transfer this balance.
First, you need to establish whose card this 'joint' credit card actually is.
Then have them both individually use an eligibility checker to see what sort of results they get then come back for further advice.
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/eligibility/credit-cards/

PRAISETHESUN

Some lenders will only allow BTs from cards in your own name, so as above it will be important to determine who actually "owns" the debt in this instance. Otherwise, I'd recommend a few eligibility checks to see what might be possible - keep in mind that they may not get card(s) with a high enough limit to fully cover the debt. Any amount that they can BT to a 0% card is better than nothing however, so get them to apply for and BT what they can, using the savings to pay down the remaining interest-bearing balance.

ColoursOfTheWind

Thanks a lot for your replies. I've established that the credit card is in my Dad's name and my Mum is an additional cardholder. Not had confirmation of the exact interest figure yet so perhaps my Mum is exaggerating a little if that seems too steep Ben8282. To answer your other questions; they both have a good credit score, have no other credit cards and no other debt. They have paid off their mortgage.

PRAISETHESUN that's helpful, thank you. Yes, I'll start by doing an eligibility check and take it from there. Something is better than nothing. I'll give it a go. Thank you both for your help.

[Deleted User]

No one has a “good credit score”.
Scores and ratings aren’t used by lenders.

ColoursOfTheWind

Thank you !!!, I've a lot to learn. I meant credit history as Ben8282 mentioned, not credit score. Many thanks.

Ben8282

Have they tried the eligibility checker yet?
The fact that your mum has no debt could work in her favour but unfortunately the fact that she has no credit cards in her own name could work against her as she has no history of credit card use for potential lenders to assess.
Your dad obviously has a credit card with a decent limit so that would work in his favour but equally the fact that you say that he has been paying this high amount of interest on a high balance for some time and has not reduced the debt could make potential lenders wary of his ability to actually repay the debt. I also suspect the utilization % on this card may be high which again may be viewed negatively.
But you will never know the outcome until you try so good luck.