Joint credit card?

rainbow_fountains

I know joint credit cards aren’t really a thing, but you can add someone else’s name to your account so they get a card of their own - but will they also be able to see the account and pay it off in their online banking app?

I’m looking at NatWest in particular, if I had a credit card and added my partner to it would they be able to see the balance and pay off the card through their app? Or would it only be me who could do that?

MovingForwards

rainbow_fountains said:

I know joint credit cards aren’t really a thing, but you can add someone else’s name to your account so they get a card of their own - but will they also be able to see the account and pay it off in their online banking app?

I’m looking at NatWest in particular, if I had a credit card and added my partner to it would they be able to see the balance and pay off the card through their app? Or would it only be me who could do that?

There's no joint credit cards.
You would be the account holder, responsible for paying the bill and can see it on your app / online banking.
Your OH would be a secondary card holder and doesn't have access to see the account as it's not theirs.  You could provide them with the payment details to make a manual payment, details are on the statement.

Be aware there's mothing stopping them using all the credit and walking away, leaving you to pay it.

Ebe_Scrooge

^^^^ This

I'm in exactly the same position.  I've got several cards, me as the primary account holder, the wife is an additional cardholder.  When the statement arrives, one or other of us will log on and pay it, we both know all the logon details for the cards and the joint bank account, it's just a case of who gets around to doing it first.  And the card company doesn't care who pays the bill - anyone who knows the payment details could pay it.  You just need to remember that ultimately it's your responsibility - if your OH says they'll get around to paying the bill and forgets, it's your credit history that'll have the late payment recorded (not that a very occasional late payment is anything much to worry about in an otherwise well-run account).  And yes - if they rack up a massive debt then run off with the milkman, it's still you that has to pay the bill :-) 

ratechaser

Out of curiosity, is there a statutory restriction on true joint credit cards? Commercially and from a risk perspective, you'd think the card issuers would be only too happy to have joint and several liability across all card holders, so it's always seemed a bit odd to me that it doesn't exist as a product...

NewLeaf1986

There's nothing from a regulatory standpoint prohibiting lenders from issuing joint credit cards in the UK.

Several other forms of finance - joint mortgages, joint unsecured personal loans, etc are available and they are all regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974.

Why don't any financial institutions offer them? Honestly no idea. 

It might have something to do with how lenders calculate affordability? 

Sandtree

No card issuer offers the option of joint credit cards, that I am aware of.

In terms of secondard card holders being able to log in etc... AmEx do allow secondard cardholders to have their own log in and they can see what they have spent/where etc but only on their own card (main account holder can obviously see all cards spending). There is no option to make a payment towards the card in the app/website when logged in as a secondard cardholder but you can have that pre-setup in your online banking etc if you wanted to make a payment.

I'm not aware of another card issuer that does the same, certainly Barclays doesnt. 

NoodleDoodleMan

"And the card company doesn't care who pays the bill - anyone who knows the payment details could pay it."

They will take an interest if the account is compromised and deduce that another party is accessing online.

"You just need to remember that ultimately it's your responsibility..."

Correct, that's where the buck stops.

Sometimes it's worth having more than one watchful eye on the credit card account........https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/feb/25/our-11-year-old-daughter-ran-up-a-2400-gaming-bill

Ebe_Scrooge

NoodleDoodleMan said:

"And the card company doesn't care who pays the bill - anyone who knows the payment details could pay it."

They will take an interest if the account is compromised and deduce that another party is accessing online.

Sorry, maybe I should have been a bit clearer.  I wasn't necessarily meaning that a third party should access the online account.  But there's nothing wrong with me giving the payment details (sort code, account number and reference number) to a friend and asking him to pay my bill for me.  I'm sure there are plenty of parents around who've done a similar thing to get their grown-up children out of a hole :-)   Or even by way of an allowance whilst they're at university or something : "Feel free to use your credit card, I'll make a payment of £xxx every month to it, anything more than that is down to you to sort out".

NewLeaf1986

Ebe_Scrooge said:

NoodleDoodleMan said:

"And the card company doesn't care who pays the bill - anyone who knows the payment details could pay it."

They will take an interest if the account is compromised and deduce that another party is accessing online.

Sorry, maybe I should have been a bit clearer.  I wasn't necessarily meaning that a third party should access the online account.  But there's nothing wrong with me giving the payment details (sort code, account number and reference number) to a friend and asking him to pay my bill for me.  I'm sure there are plenty of parents around who've done a similar thing to get their grown-up children out of a hole :-)   Or even by way of an allowance whilst they're at university or something : "Feel free to use your credit card, I'll make a payment of £xxx every month to it, anything more than that is down to you to sort out".

Quite, my OH financed my car on an MBNA money transfer deal he had and I repay his CC by standing order out of my current account each month.