Can You Do a Balance Transfer From Someone Else’s Credit Card?

by Mack Bartlett

COMPLETE

Transferring someone else’s balance onto a card that you carry is possible, but not always wise. It can either be very helpful for the person you are transferring the balance for, or it can be very hurtful to you if you take on the responsibility of someone else’s debt by transferring the balance from their card onto yours. Here are a few pros and cons.

Benefits

Some of the things you can get out of a balance transfer from someone else’s credit card to yours is that they have a much better annual percentage rate. Their credit card interest will go down considerably with a credit card balance transfer. The fact that you have paid your bills on time and have a good credit score and credit history will also be advantageous to them in more ways than one, especially if they have had a bad credit history themselves.

If the person that has recently been added to your credit card has a good credit history and is responsible with their spending, it will be a great benefit for you as well. Their good spending habits will reflect on your credit report as well as theirs, because the card is originally under your name. It is important to know if someone can be of benefit to you in this way before you allow them to transfer the balance of their debt onto your credit card.

Fallbacks

The biggest risk you are taking when you allow someone to transfer their debt onto you credit card is if they spend on your card unwisely and build their debt problem back up to where it was before. A lot of the time, when people get in trouble with interest rates because they have bad spending habits, it is very difficult for them to change those habits in order for it not to happen again. The part that makes the situation even worse than it was before is that it is YOUR credit card, and YOU are going to suffer along with them.

If you have bad spending habits, this will rack up their debt and interest rates as well. Say you just got a brand new credit card with a great APR, but you have had some trouble paying your bills in the past. The people you allow on your credit card are going to want to know about this in order to decide whether or not they will really benefit from joining their balance with yours. Just like they can ruin good interest rates for you, you need to be certain that you will not leave them stuck with higher interest rates than they had on their first credit card.

Tips

You finally decide that it’s safe to do the transfer. Now what? Just like shopping for any other card with low interest rates, you need to be careful of what cards you settle for. Be sure to get one with a low fixed rate, and know how much it may increase, when, and why.

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