Credit card transfer

zante_bride

I currently have an M&S credit card with a £5,500 balance that I am paying interest on. I would ideally like to do a 0% balance transfer so all payment paying down balance. Even though I have a high credit score I currently am not working as a carer for my son receiving carers allowance/UC. So thought that it may be better to get a card in my husband's name. What are the rules around this? Can you do a balance transfer for a card in your spouses name? It would also need to be a company that is not part of the same banking group.

ManyWays

Most cards do not allow this; Barclaycard is an exception. There may be others

Brie

Credit scores are meaningless as creditors do not see those, only you do. What they can see are the details on your credit reports. Have a look at those and see if there's anything scary on them. If all is rosy then you may be able to apply for a card and get one with a 0% BT deal even if it's not enough to cover the full balance on your M&S card. But you will need to list income and that's what may trip you up as you've realised.

Others have reported that there is something in the T&Cs of cards with deals that you are only able to do a BT to another with your name on it. I've never spotted that myself and have merrily transferred between myself and my husband's cards over the years without any issues. In any case it would be an idea to apply and see what he gets and take it from there.

The important thing of course is to not use the card for anything else should he get it as that will trigger high interest from day 1 on any purchases made. Likewise I'd suggest that you stop using the M&S card (assuming you still are) until you get the balance down to zero as you also will be paying a lot from day of purchase.

Despite having an M&S card myself I've never clocked what banking group that is so best to find this out before any applications are made so that you/hubby don't run up a load of applications which will just make things more difficult for you. That said I've done transfers between M&S and Barclays as well as MBNA and Santander. MBNA have frequent deals and seem to allow higher balances than Barclays and Santander. In my experience.

Emmia

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6658599/credit-card-transfer

Getting a card in your husband's name and moving the debt to it, makes him responsible for the debt. Not telling him you're applying for a card in his name is fraud.

Is he aware of the debt?

flaneurs_lobster

Despite having an M&S card myself I've never clocked what banking group that is so best to find this out before any applications are made so that you/hubby don't run up a load of applications which will just make things more difficult for you. That said I've done transfers between M&S and Barclays as well as MBNA and Santander. MBNA have frequent deals and seem to allow higher balances than Barclays and Santander.

Bit fiddly, M&S Bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of HSBC but has its own banking licence. This will change later this year when HSBC UK absorb M&S Bank into the main group (1 June is planned). Not sure if this means transfers M&S > HSBC would be allowed or not at the moment.

zante_bride

Great, thanks. Will Check out Barclaycard. After a bit of googling I found the same info so hopefully a good option

zante_bride

Thanks for the reply. Nothing scary on either of our reports. (Only this card that is utilised near its limit) Not using the M&S card for spending currently. We initially attempted it last year my husband was accepted for an MBNA card for the full amount. It was only when we went to complete the BT it stated you couldn't transfer between the same banking group. So we cancelled it. we then applied for another card that initially said accepted for the limit we needed but came through much lower so cancelled that too. We then gave up as didn't want to have more searches added. it has been 6 months plus now so will attempt again. in hindsight we perhaps should have kept the lower balance one and been patient for an increase just didn't want it to get confusing with numerous cards on the go.

zante_bride

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81914689#Comment_81914689

I hadn't planned on committing a criminal offence but thought that would be a given!

horsewithnoname

I’ve done balance transfers from my sister and friends, never once had it questioned. As long as the provider isn’t from the same “stable” for both cards, you shouldn’t have a problem, especially if you do the transfer on line.