garentor. was i right to refuse?

27col

They had a damn cheek even to ask you to be a guarantor, especially for such an old banger.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

I agree with all the comments about you being right not to be a guarantor (the brother in law should be the one feeling guilty they asked) and I'm particularly baffled by the car they wanted that they needed to rely upon and have no money to spend on it.

John

shockingly the MG TF is not expensive to maintain, just to fix the headgasket correctly so it doesnt blow again.
the choice of car he wanted this loan for did make my ears stand up, i know these cars in and out, and all rover MG cars i have onwed a few in the past, and he is not one to keep a solid eye on what is going on under the bonnet.

my decision still stands that i will not go garentor, i hope he take this decision in the future as a lucky escape.. i am thinking of him aswell as me in the long run.

iolanthe07

Anyone who buys a 13 year old MGTF needs their head examining. These things weren't very reliable even when they were new - a mate of mine had no end of trouble and discovered that the problems were well known and documented.

I agree with all the others - only stand as guarantor for a loan if you are sure you can stand the loss.

arcon5

Good decision.

Had you wanted to help there are better and cheaper ways to do so:

- as mentioned, take the loan out yourself at a lower rate and have him sign something between you to. This will avoid late charges, extortionate interest rates. Still though, I wouldn't recommend this.

- buy the car yourself in your name, have him pay you a fee each week then hand the vehicle over to him after x weeks. If he stops paying recover the car and sell it to recover some money. Safer option, but could still see you loosing out.

You allowed you head to overrule your heart - it's a shame more people cannot do this. Well done

paddyrg

arcon5 wrote: »

- buy the car yourself in your name, have him pay you a fee each week then hand the vehicle over to him after x weeks. If he stops paying recover the car and sell it to recover some money. Safer option, but could still see you loosing out.

Bang on - best option of a bad lot

atrixblue.-MFR-.

i had considdered buying the car in my name, this went through my mind upon him mentioning the car, but the car has no capital to offer me upon resale had he broken our terms.

Bravehearted_2

Tell him to get a banger.

KingElvis

That car woul've been a real banger anyway.....money pit doesn't cover it.

warehouse

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

If he was in a stable home on a stable job with stable money and had no problems maintaining his money but past bad credit choices prevented a loan i would i have considdered being a garentor.

If that was the situation then they wouldn't have needed to put you on the spot anyway. Great call O.P., read these forums for a while and you'll soon see that family/friends & money never ever work.......ever.

Elvisia

YOU DID THE RIGHT THING

Not only would you have lost 2k but you would probably have fallen out with him, and if you start guaranteeing these things he would have asked for more favours and on it would go...bad things do happen but we have to pick ourselves up, and it's not for others to do it for us. If he had been better with his money in the past this wouldn't have been an issue, so he could get on with grieving for his relatives. As harsh as it sounds it is not your problem. The reason I am saying this and sounding like an old moo cow is because I always take on everyone's issues and feel terrible when people do things for me, and I have my very sensible friends saying to me IT'S NOT YOUR PROBLEM and now finally I am understanding it's not. If he needs a car he can buy a banger for £500.

There was a joke I heard a while ago which rather reminds me of this situation "a problem shared is a problem two people have got". He shares his debt problem with you and now it's your problem too.