Balance transfer someone else's debt?

[mattayy]

Hello,

I am paying 18% apr on my Southwest card with a balance of $5k - my parents offered to balance transfer it to a card in their name that has 0% interest for 15 months to help me pay it off. Is this possible? I wasn't sure if you could transfer another persons debt into your name? 

Also, they have American Express and Capital One, which one of those cards would be best to open for them to have me balance transfer to if this is possible? 

Thank you!

[FireMedic1]

They just have to add you as a AU. Then do your BT.

[Remedios]

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@mattayy wrote:

Hello,

I am paying 18% apr on my Southwest card with a balance of $5k - my parents offered to balance transfer it to a card in their name that has 0% interest for 15 months to help me pay it off. Is this possible? I wasn't sure if you could transfer another persons debt into your name? 

Also, they have American Express and Capital One, which one of those cards would be best to open for them to have me balance transfer to if this is possible? 

Thank you!

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Lenders dont care about name on the account. BT is certainly possible from your account to theirs. 

As far as to which card, we'd need to know limits on their Amex and Cap one cards in order to be able to tell you which one is better option

Keep in mind that on ED BTs are capped at $5K. Not sure if same limit applies to their other cards 

[RehabbingANDBlabbing]

Yeah, it shouldn't be a problem to transfer your balance to their card. The bank paying off your balance literally just gets the account number and balance and sends the funds electronically. If your dealing with a smaller bank, they may pay your BT by check. But you don't need to go through any additional steps, other than to submit the BT request. I've done this a few times for some family members of mine (transferring one balance to othe other person's account).

[mattayy]

Thank you all for your insight this is very helpful. 

My parents would be opening up a credit card for the balance transfer for me - currently they have the American Express Gold Card and a couple Capital One cards (not sure what the limits are). 

They are open to opening up another card with a different lender but it would need to make sense for the purpose of this all.