DH has a credit card with £4.5k on it though it's in my name as my credit rating is a lot better than DHs, though so far he has made all payments towards it. It was a balance transfer at 0% for 18 month, DH has only managed to get it down for £4.5k from £7k during that term. I have been on maternity leave so have been unable to save anything to put towards it, I returned to work a few months ago.
There is no question that this is DHs debt, not mine. Long story short, he made a poor business decision that backfired massively and I took out the balance transfer card for him as he was paying over £100 a month in interest alone and he couldn't get one himself.
I earn a lot more than DH and now that I have returned to work I have been able to save some money. Maternity leave ate all our savings so I went back with very little left over.
However, I am projected to have saved £4000 by the time the 0% period comes to an end in April. DH should be able to cover the last £500 himself and it would clear the debt. I could then concentrate on starting to save up for us again.
DH works very hard and we split bills proportional to our income. But despite paying a lot more towards our bills, I still end up with more 'spare money' than DH does which we don't split, we just put in savings and they are for the family but technically, it's my money.
It's a bit of a bone of contention that we don't just split money all from one pot but DH is self employed, in a partnership and doesn't have a business bank account so it's very hard to work out exactly what is his money and what is the business' money so it has been his choice to agree what he needs to contribute towards family bills but otherwise keep our finances separate even though he'd definitely have more disposable income for himself if we split it but there we are. So I have saved this money but I do consider it 'our' money.
I don't want to take out another 0% balance transfer card as honestly it just irritates me being in my name and sat there every time I open my banking app reminding me what a mess DH let himself get into before he told me how deep he'd got himself. But he simply cannot afford to clear it himself and I can. I also doubt DHs credit rating is good enough to take out such a high card on a long term 0% deal now either. So if we did do this, it would still have to be in my name.
Do I just suck it up and pay it off and be done with it or do I take out another card and let DH keep paying it back, incredibly slowly.
I'm annoyed at DH no end but really want to be clear; he is a good man, a good dad and a good husband. He works very hard and pays what he can and earns enough that his contribution to our family finances does contribute to our quality of life. He just made a bad mistake and got overwhelmed by it. He didn't tell me what was happening because I was pregnant and very unwell in pregnancy and he was hoping he could sort it before he had to worry me, this didn't happen obviously. So please no 'LTB'. Just genuinely, what should I do? Pay it off with our savings or let DH keep paying slowly on another card in my name?