It's been a couple years since I have posted to this board. This site has grown very much. So many new members, so many new ideas and questions. While I have been away from here, I got married a few months ago. My wife and I now have a few credit issues that I knew she had but we were going to work out together. She has debt, I don't so ofcourse being new to marriage and coping with this is quite challenging at first but things are progressing well. My question is, those balance transfer checks that credit card companies send you in the mail, do they have to be used to pay off other credit cards or can they be mailed to any company that is looking for money, for instance her creditors? The interest rate that these creditors are charging is very high between 20-30%apr from month to month. The interest rates on my credit cards are much lower. Can those checks to be used to transfer the balances from those companies to the credit card since some of the creditors don't accept payment by credit card, but only check or money order? Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't this also be an advantage in regards to helping clean up her credit report which reflects all of the chargeoffs and delinquent accounts? They would post as paid since the balance has been paid by my credit card.
If you're handling your finances jointly, which it sounds like you are, then transferring some of her high-APR balances to your low APR accounts makes sense. If the account(s) in question don't allow transfers, then you can take the checks you're getting and put them into your checking account, and just pay with your checks. You mentioned that there's a history of chargeoffs and deliquent accounts. Keep in mind that a paid chargeoff (vs. unpaid) looks NO different on a credit report, and has little, if any, effect on one's credit score. Depending on how old the chargeoffs are, you might want to take care of these LAST. Be sure to read up on the SOL for the chargeoffs too!
Look the offer over carefully. Many times you can make the BT checks payable to yourself. That's what I do. Write one check for the whole amount you want to BT, then write the checks from your account to whoever you want. That way your cc company doesn't know who is getting the money.
