Helping Someone Who Has Credit Card Debt

[churnbabychurn]

Just remember if you get charged interest on his loan, it is Ribbis to collect that interest from him (or late fees) according to all Poskim that I ever spoke to about this.

I wonder what they would say if the borrower paid of the interest directly to the bank, IE.-  He wrote a check to Chase to pay for my bill.

[Barryg]

I hope you are aware that most banks will not allow a BT from withing their bank. IE.- You cant BT from a Chase CC to a Chase Slate.
This makes the whole BT game tricky.
Good luck

Can buy visa gc/mvd/vr/chase gc with Slate and Bluebird/cash can pay Freedom (whole point of Slate is 0 BT fee AFAIK)
Or if Chase balance high, can apply for Citi Simplicity etc.

[bubbles]

I wonder what they would say if the borrower paid of the interest directly to the bank, IE.-  He wrote a check to Chase to pay for my bill.

Why would that be any different?

[hocker]

There is someone I know who's paying a ridiculous amount for interest for credit card debt. He's pretty sure he won't get approved for a Chase Slate or any other balance transfer card. Is there any way that I, with excellent credit and a ton of open CL with 0% APR help him out without killing my credit score?

I would suggest you call the bank and get them to lower the APR, I currently have a 3.9 APR on one of my cards which I earned through tough negotiations.

[EMES]

I would suggest you call the bank and get them to lower the APR, I currently have a 3.9 APR on one of my cards which I earned through tough negotiations.

[YaakovS]

+1
Or, sign him on as an AU to one or two of your cards that have 0 balance when cycle closes and high credit line. The result (hopefully) will be that his utilization goes down to under 40%. He then should be able to apply for a Slate and Freedom in a 2bm and have no interest on his cc debt.
(A combination of Gemach + AU on high limit card is best as it will spead utilization even more).
If he is married this will be a lot easier as only one has to be the holder of cc debt (drop the other from being AU)...

This sounds like the best suggestion should probly work really well, thanks!

[Am]

Why would that be any different?

+1 m'svarah and iirc it is also a Halacha mefureshes

[Baruch]

I wonder what they would say if the borrower paid of the interest directly to the bank, IE.-  He wrote a check to Chase to pay for my bill.

I highly doubt that would help, because if it would, wouldn't they just give you that idea when you ask the shaalah.

[Baruch]

+1 m'svarah and iirc it is also a Halacha mefureshes

+1

[hocker]

This sounds like the best suggestion should probly work really well, thanks!

I'm skeptical if it would work as they see the utilization for each account too. Please report back.

[Barryg]

I'm skeptical if it would work as they see the utilization for each account too. Please report back.

IMO Amex (Experian) seems to care about % of utilization of each acc. Don't believe that Citi/Chase TU care about each specific account as much, but rather about the % of credit as a whole.
What I am uncertain about is if someone has all accounts with him as account holder maxed out and has AU accounts with very low or 0 utilization, if that would hurt chances. (Probably depends on overall score and whether card is automatically approved or not.)

[YaakovS]

I wonder what they would say if the borrower paid of the interest directly to the bank, IE.-  He wrote a check to Chase to pay for my bill.

Still will not help. Although in theory it would work if a random third party paid off a person's ribbis (WITHOUT receiving any sort of compensation) if the third party in this case pays it off, since he is only paying off my interest because of my loan to him, which is ribbis as well. May still even be ribbis ketzutzah

[YaakovS]

IMO Amex (Experian) seems to care about % of utilization of each acc. Don't believe that Citi/Chase TU care about each specific account as much, but rather about the % of credit as a whole.
What I am uncertain about is if someone has all accounts with him as account holder maxed out and has AU accounts with very low or 0 utilization, if that would hurt chances. (Probably depends on overall score and whether card is automatically approved or not.)

In from NY and I get pulled from Experian for Chase. If what you're saying is true, adding him as an AU won't help for those maxed out cards. Doesn't hurt to try though and hope for the best.

[YaakovS]

+1 m'svarah and iirc it is also a Halacha mefureshes

Curious as to where it's mefureshes... I'm 99% sure it's still asur (as I explained)

[churnbabychurn]

Still will not help. Although in theory it would work if a random third party paid off a person's ribbis (WITHOUT receiving any sort of compensation) if the third party in this case pays it off, since he is only paying off my interest because of my loan to him, which is ribbis as well. May still even be ribbis ketzutzah

Unless he is just preventing a loss for you. (Im just raising the possibility, it depends how you look at things.)
Besides, you can always make a simple Heter isska.
When approaching a rabbi, ask him how you can make it work, not if this is ossur. There are so many ways around...
This is how business is done