Need advice

alioops78

Hi

I'm a first time poster but have been lurking for a while. Not too sure if this is the right place but just hope someone can help and sorry for the long post

A few months ago a very good friend needed to be helped out of a dire money situation ie if she didn't pay she would go to jail, bailiffs at the door etc (should've read up on here first). She already had a loan from Provident but she needed £500 to get rid of the bailiff and have some breathing space. She was unable to borrow anymore under her name so the rep that she is dealing with asked if anyone could go guarantor for her.

I offered to go guarantor for her as she had promised that she would make the payments and that after 6 weeks she would be in a position to put the loan back into her name. As far as I was aware everything was going along smoothly but surprise surprise it's all gone to pot. Apparently it started 8 weeks ago that the payments have stopped, this was explained to me by the fact that her normal rep was on holiday and the other rep that took over didn't pick up the money, this has been confirmed by the normal rep so I'm not that bothered with this excuse. A few weeks ago I had a call from the area manager stating that payment had not been made, I explained the above situation and he offered to go and pick the money up. This was organised but he unfortunately went to the wrong house and it seems to have gone downhill from there.

My 'very good friend' is now ignoring my phone calls and texts but I have been advised by the rep that she is going to be seeing her on Monday night but that if she doesn't have the 6 weeks money owed to give her I'll have to pay up.

I guess basically I have a few choices available to me that I can think of:

1. Get an overdraft from the bank to pay off the balance owed and organise my friend to pay me a set amount each month (don't really want to but seems to be a good option).
2. Go to the Bank of Grandma :rotfl:and ask to borrow the money, although it will be hard to explain it to her what I need it for.
3. Ignore the damn thing as they haven't even spelt my surname right so could say it's not my debt :rolleyes: (wishful thinking I know).

The total balance to pay is £893 :eek:

I'm just hoping anyone can give me advice as to what the next move should be, I know should really wait until Monday when I know what's going to happen but I'm a virgo and it's impossible not to plan :-)

Thanks in advance

hypno06

Is there any chance you can go and see your friend and sort things out with them? Sit on their doorstep until they answer type thing?

Or put a note through their door saying you know it is "difficult" for them right now but can they please ring you to sort things out with you before Monday.

alioops78

Thanks Hypno

Unfortunately she's not that close to me and I've had conflicting reports that she's either at her parents house (I don't know where they live) or she was coming home late last night. I haven't got a car and if I have to pay up on Monday I haven't got the money for taxi fare either. I might see if I can get a friend to drive me past there to see if there are any lights on but other than that I'm a bit stuck.

I'll just keep on sending the friendly texts and hope that she actually contacts me but it's like hitting my head against a brick wall :mad:

hypno06

That's a shame - face to face would at least have allowed you to talk with her and for you to encourage her to get ebaying or car booting RIGHT NOW!!!

Sadly, then, it seems like you may be stuck with paying. Although maybe you can come to an arrangement on a monthly payment with these people which would at least give you time to find/sort out with your friend.

Of course, your friend may just find it too shameful to talk to you right now, or just plain avoiding you. It may be that you lose a friend over this, and I hope you don't find yourself in that situation.

My only positive thing that I can come up with to help, is that YOU join in some of the making money challenges so that you don't end up short yourself as a result - it would be an awful result if you ended up in bother yourself because of your "friend's" financial problems.

Do keep us informed.

GeorgeUK

Hi Alioops

Lending money or guarantoring is always risky , especially when that person is already in debt. If you can't reach your friend by phone, can you go and visit her to see what the situation is? You will need to know what is going on and how much money she has, if any, before you can plan what to do.

I suggest you tell her about this site incase we can help with any of this - she could post up a statement of affairs so we can see if there are any areas to save on or what options she has available. Has she contacted any of the free debt charities for assistance? Does she know how much she owes in total? She could look into debt management plans or possible an Administration Order - Are you in Scotland or England?

With regards the debt, as you are guarantor, then you will probably need to pay it, but i would ask for a statement of the accounts so you can see exactly how much has been paid and how much is owed. Wouldn't want them to forget any payments that had been made.

alioops78

Just tried to call her now and actually got a text back saying that she was with her landlord and she would text when she was free. I understand what you're saying about her being ashamed about it and I have thought that myself. Hopefully after the phone call I will feel better but will have to wait and see, now to find the cheapest way of calling her :-)

On the note of getting a couple of quid extra for myself, I've already started with signing up to survey sites and quidco. Have to say that I am addicted to this site and find all the stories inspirational.

It's definitely taught me a lesson though, no matter how much you want to help someone only offer advice not money, it's a hell of a lot cheaper lol

alioops78

Hi Hypno and GeorgeUK

Thank you both for your advice, I managed to speak to her yesterday after she had gotten a hold of the provident rep who went round and went through all the payments that have been made and how much is owing. Apparently it is now all sorted including how she is going to be paying in future (she's moving a couple of hours away on tuesday) so hopefully I won't need to worry about it anymore. Although for my own piece of mind I will contact the rep on Monday and just double check that it is all sorted.

Hypno06 - she is already in the trap of falling short of money each month and having to put things into cash generator etc to meet bills. She's hoping the move will help solve all her problems but an attitude change is going to help more I think.

GeorgeUK - I have already shown her this site and will hopefully be able to persuade her to post her SOA up here when she has internet access at her new place. I know that she has been in to CAB in the past but hate to see her getting herself into the same problems, I know it doesn't matter where you are if you don't change your attitude towards money then you'll just continue making the same mistakes over and over again. (Learnt my lesson back in Australia :rotfl:)

Thank you both again for your advice.

Alioops