Balance transfers in different names

Jeggers123

Hi.  I want to help my sister in law with credit card debt, after death of my brother.  She has 5 credit cards all on the 30% ++ interest ones.  I wanted to open a 0% balance transfer one - will be in my name and she will be paying me monthly - but can you do balance transfers from her cards to this new one, as names will be different?   I asked Barclays - they said no.    Does anyone know of any card that will do this?   Thank you.     

Brie

I've done it with a Barclaycard in the past and done BTs from my Santander and my M&S card to my OH's MBNA and back again.  Frankly MBNA seems to be most generous with credit limit and frequency of offers.  (fyi - our names are completely different)

Must admit it never occurred to me that it wouldn't be allowed so I never checked the T&Cs.

word of caution - are you ok if your SiL doesn't repay you?  

Sorry for your loss - hopefully the financial situation will be resolved sooner rather than later.

CliveOfIndia

Anecdotally it's usually fine if you do the transfer online - assuming you're given sufficient credit limit, of course.  A lot of cards won't allow it if you do it over the phone.

As above, do remember that the debt would then become solely your responsibility, and there's nothing you could do if she stopped paying you back for any reason.  Obviously I sincerely hope that won't end up being the case, but it's as well to be aware of it.

Jeggers123

@ Brie - were your addresses the same though?   Was it recent?   Because Barclay card specifically told me I couldn't do this.   Perhaps it's a finger crossed they don't notice then if doing online ?! 

Yes, aware responsibility is then mine if she doesn't pay up - although nothing every guaranteed, am confident she will continue with the repayments, and if not, am aware the debts become mine !   

Belenus

I have done a balance transfer from a card in my name to a card in my wife's name.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6568150/balance-transfer-to-wifes-card-from-husbands-card/p1

My wife filled in my card number and the £amount on her card's balance transfer online form and it all went through without question.

Our surnames and address are the same. I don't know if they were checked.

Anecdotally others have also done the same or similar.

Give it a try if you are happy to take on her debt.

DullGreyGuy

Most require that you are the account holder of the receiving account however historically they had no way to automatically check this. 

We are now in different times and banks can now automatically check names etc so in principle if they wanted to enforce the rules they can. People will be well meaning but some may be answering based on a transfer they did 8 years ago before the tech landscape changed. 

Brie said:

I've done it with a Barclaycard in the past and done BTs from my Santander and my M&S card to my OH's MBNA and back again.  Frankly MBNA seems to be most generous with credit limit and frequency of offers.  

Barclays refused a BT for us last year when trying to transfer the wife's balance to me saying the card wasnt in my name, we have the same surname and address. 

MBNA certainly has certainly been very generous with us, gave the Mrs a mid teens limit and then me more than double hers. MBNA and Virgin both send monthly offers to us, always offer her 0.5% better fees than me though