I've been stitched up by a "friend"

Wauwa01

Hi,

I had a very good friend or so I thought, he used to help me out by coming round to my house and cutting my grass and helping build furniture and he was just generally good friend. SO my other friend was geting married and planned a hen weekend away and he offered me the cash to go as I couldn't afford it. I couldn't have accepted that from him but soon after he was telling me he really wanted me to go away and badly wanted to buy his daughter a laptop for his birthday. SO then he talked me into going guarantor on a FLM Loan for £500 and he said that way he could pay for both and I felt better about that because I thought he would let me pay some of the money into the loan. Well I never saw a penny of it and next thing his girlfriend was threatening to kill me and accusing me of being after him and the abuse got so bad I had to phone the police. Guess what, now he isn't paying the loan so FLM are coming straight to my account and I have been well told by them if I don't pay they will take me to court. To make matters worse, he has changed around the payment dates so the agreed £48 per month payments are now £85 and after a year I am still due them £500. I am a single mother with 2 kids and currently fighting the CSA for maintenance, this payment meant I missed bills and he has told me straight he won't pay......what can I do? Can I take him to the small claims court?

MoneySaverForever

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear of your really horrible experiences with your so-called "friend".
I think that maybe a visit to the CAB would be a good idea and I really do hope you get it sorted out xxx

Apples2

Plenty of examples on here which demonstrate how absurd it is to act a guarantor.

Typically, for each post we have where someone is considering a guarantor loan, NONE of them will listen to reason, in fact most of them get downright spiteful in their replies to people warning against it.

As guarantor, it is your loan and your responsibility to pay for it. You have only yourself to blame. the bank KNEW he wasn't going to repay the loan which is obviously why they insisted on a guarantor.

You can try Small Claims but you would be throwing good money after bad.

whitewing

I think you need to go to the CAB and arrange to pay it back at a rate you can afford. Forget about your friend. If he puts it right in the future (if he dumps his gf) then so be it. But I think you will need to take responsibility for it, however unfair that seems. (We've all learnt the hard way, so you dohave my sympathy).

MichaelCR

Apples2 wrote: »

Plenty of examples on here which demonstrate how absurd it is to act a guarantor.

Typically, for each post we have where someone is considering a guarantor loan, NONE of them will listen to reason, in fact most of them get downright spiteful in their replies to people warning against it.

As guarantor, it is your loan and your responsibility to pay for it. You have only yourself to blame. the bank KNEW he wasn't going to repay the loan which is obviously why they insisted on a guarantor.

You can try Small Claims but you would be throwing good money after bad.

Agree !!

I see these 'Guarantor Situations' All the time on these forums.

Why bother with small claims, CAB etc etc, End of the day you signed and entered an agreement with FLM under the Consumer Credit Act, You agreed to pay if your 'friend' couldn't. Why did he need a guarantor ? Because he cannot get credit him self due to an adverse history of MISSING PAYMENTS, AND DEFAULTING ON CONTRACTS.

KingElvis

Nahhh you're stuffed, that's what comes from trusting shysters.

Learn from it and steer clear of dirty, hairy men with barking schemes about laptops and hen weekends.

jonesMUFCforever

I sometimes wonder whether these guarantees are worth the paper they are written on.
It used to be the case to act as a guarantor you had to go to a solicitor of your choice to sign the document - he/she would then explain in detail what you were signing and the obligations.

There was a court case to this effect (Sorry can't remember the name of it)

I wonder if someone took these loan companies on whether they could be enforced??

vax2002

What is a Guarantor in a loan
Basically the Person you are a Guarantor for gets the goods
You get to repay the loan.
How can you be sure ?
Because that person can not get credit because they do not pay it back, so they wont pay the new loan back.
What can I do
Pay it back and learn the hard way, you have just been a mug.

JuicyJesus

I speak from bitter experience here - it is NEVER a good idea to agree to have someone else's goods purchased on credit in your name. By doing the above, or in your case acting as guarantor, what you have basically done is taken out a loan in your name and given him the capital on the understanding he will pay you back. This naturally leaves you vulnerable because if he chooses not to do so you have !!!!!! all in the way of recourse to anyone. Especially not here, since if he won't pay the company he has the loan with he certainly won't repay you.

I really do feel sorry for you, as like I say I am in a similar situation, but as vax2002 says you (and I) have been a mug. It is rare these days for a guarantor to be required for a personal loan, as usually banks will straight decline any applications that don't meet their criteria, and for them to do so is a very, very bad sign.

As others have said, the CAB or the CCCS are your best bet.

RobertoMoir

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

I sometimes wonder whether these guarantees are worth the paper they are written on.
It used to be the case to act as a guarantor you had to go to a solicitor of your choice to sign the document - he/she would then explain in detail what you were signing and the obligations.

Without wanting to sound like I'm having a dig at the OP, this is the problem with a lot of the posts here we see with regards to problems with credit - people just sign without understanding what it is they are signing.

There was a court case to this effect (Sorry can't remember the name of it)

I wonder if someone took these loan companies on whether they could be enforced??

I'd imagine this concept has been tested in court as its been around for a very long time - which is perhaps an argument that it should be updated. Perhaps the use of guarantors should be outlawed for general loans and credit (I think it would cause too many problems to outlaw it for housing).

27col

I think that people who act as guarantors for other people's loans can best be described as financially illiterate. To all intents and purposes it is the guarantor who is taking out the loan and who is therefore responsible for paying it back. People seem to have not the remotest idea of what it means to act as guarantor for someone else's loan.The lack of financial knowledge shown on this forum is truly staggering. It is about time that some lessons on personal finance were taught at school. Although, going on the numbers of school leavers who cannot read and write, some people are beyond being taught anything.