Guarantor Loans and DMPs

stevelatimer

Hello and Happy New Year all,

Have a question I need some advice on. Now I'm pretty sure the answer to this is no but I thought I would ask anyway.

I've been really struggling job wise over the last 18 months with just trickles of work here and there. I took out a guarantor loan with FLM last year basically to keep me afloat for a while as I was convinced that things would get better. Unfortunately they have not. I have reduced my credit card and next directory account to minimum payment for a while but even at that i cannot afford to live on my current income. Not to mention various other utility bills I have piling up.

I am considering a DMP but was wondering if the FLM loan could go on it? I suspect not as they would simply make my guarantor pay which I completely understand as that is the point of having the guarantor. Just thought I would check for definite though as it may me an option for me soon.

Thanks
Steve

david_hellier

Do you have any dependents and do you own your own place?

pwally2

Hi there,

FLM wont accept a DMP. THey will force your guarantor to pay. On our DMP they were accepting the reduced payment but kept ringing and texting asking for full payment. They have now taken us to court and we are challenging decision from court as didnt get letters in time to allow us to defend ourselves but due to postal disruptions due to weather dont know what is happening so now we are paying the full county court judgement and nothing to other creditors which is marvelous!!!

stevelatimer

david_hellier wrote: »

Do you have any dependents and do you own your own place?

No and No. I have no assets of any kind and all accounts etc are way overdrawn.

stevelatimer

pwally2 wrote: »

Hi there,

FLM wont accept a DMP. THey will force your guarantor to pay. On our DMP they were accepting the reduced payment but kept ringing and texting asking for full payment. They have now taken us to court and we are challenging decision from court as didnt get letters in time to allow us to defend ourselves but due to postal disruptions due to weather dont know what is happening so now we are paying the full county court judgement and nothing to other creditors which is marvelous!!!

Thanks for that. Useful to know. Did they say that they would accept it initially though just out of interest?

They are quite ruthless to be honest so that doesn't really surprise me reading that. A few times I have rang them to say I will be a day or two late with payment and they just wont have it and take it straight from my dads account the day after it was due! No breathing space at all. Really regret taking it now but at the time it was the only option I could see.

david_hellier

stevelatimer wrote: »

No and No. I have no assets of any kind and all accounts etc are way overdrawn.

Ask them to take you to court or you will file for bankruptcy.

stevelatimer

Ah I see where you're coming from.

I wouldn't want to go down that route as they would continue to take money from my Dads account anyway I imagine!

I'll probably just continue paying it to be honest and hope I can get back into a decent job. Its soul destroying working for peanuts when I had years of good employment.

Tixy

Have you had any advice from one of the debt charities regarding a DMP?

Do you have a lot of other debts aside from the FLM loan? Just because that debt would not be included doesn't mean that a DMP is not the right option for you.

Can you Dad afford to service the FLM loan whilst you focus on your other debts?

stevelatimer

Tixy wrote: »

Have you had any advice from one of the debt charities regarding a DMP?

Do you have a lot of other debts aside from the FLM loan? Just because that debt would not be included doesn't mean that a DMP is not the right option for you.

Can you Dad afford to service the FLM loan whilst you focus on your other debts?

Not a massive amount to be honest. FLM is the biggest one. Got about 4k on credit card, 3k on store card. Few small loans (£500ish) and a lot of utility arrears (few hundred quids worth)

I simply couldn't ask my Dad to pay it although he could. He gets by okay but it wouldn't be right to ask him.

I don't think my debts are really enough to warrant a DMP but the stress at the moment is massive and with my part time job ending in a few weeks I am very concerned indeed about what to do. I just cant see myself getting another job quickly which will leave me in dire straits!

Thanks for the response

Tixy

If you have utility arrears then I'd say that your debts are pretty bad no matter how much you actually owe.
I still think it would be worth speaking to CCCS for some advice. You need to prioritise paying off your utility arrears before the other unsecured debts, even if you have to default on some of the debts.

Have you worked out a full statement of affairs to see how much you are short of each month?

I can see it might be hard to let Dad cover the guaranteed loan, but he must have realised that this could be the situation when he agreed to be guarantor and if he knows you are not working, or won't be soon I expect he'll be expecting it.

Good luck with job hunting.

stevelatimer

Thanks,

When I calculate everything my outgoings are about £200-£250 a month more than my income and thats living on the breadline. So if anything else pops up that figure becomes more.

Im going to tackle the utility bills as soon as possible. My agency managed to !!!! up my pay the week before and the week after xmas so a load of my direct debits will now bounce adding charges and inconvenience to an already bad situation!