Seeking help for a family member - Amigo Loans

somethingcorporate

27col wrote: »

Yet another example of why you should never be a guarantor for a loan. If you are a guarantor then the loan is yours. It is a con artist's charter.
If you can get someone to be mug enough to guarantee you, you can walk away from your responsibility whenever you want.
It really is sad to think of how many people do not have the faintest idea of what being a guarantor actually means.

The unfortunate thing is, it would have been in black and white on the document they no doubt signed.

Xbigman

This is a cut and paste of something I wrote before. FLM are now known as Amigo


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This is harsh I know...

You are 100% liable for the debt. The person who borrowed the money only needed a guarantor because they were a bad risk so FLM are not interested in them. You are the one they will be after.
Cancelling your card was possibly the most stupid thing you could have done. FLM's interest rates are horrendous, their arrears interest rates and charges are worse. Every time you fail to pay they add more to the debt and it can run to hundreds of pounds a month. You are liable for all of those charges. On a 5 year 3k loan the regular repayments total 7k. With arrears you could easily have to pay 10k+.

Your choices.
1. Get the original borrower to pay. Lets be honest, you only go to FLM when you're a useless payer so this almost never works out. Even if they start paying for a while it will likely all fall apart again at some point.
2. You pay the regular payments. If you go down this route you need to pay off the arrears ASAP. Leaving unpaid arrears is financial disaster. If you can get something out of the original borrower towards this it will be a bonus.
3. (This is ultimately the best method) Get a settlement figure from FLM (including all arrears) IN WRITING, then you borrow the money in your name and pay it off. FLM are then gone and you will at least have a decent rate of interest whilst you pay off your new loan. You will think 3. sucks, and it does, but its far better than 1. or 2.

You say you were misled. Your mean the original borrower misled you as to their ability to pay? Or you were misled about what you were signing? We need more details. It may make sueing the original borrower easier. Its very, very unlikely to get you out of paying.

You haven't said which FLM company is involved. There are several with similar names that are all related to each other but they operate very slightly differently. Are you with the one that requires the guarantor to be a homeowner? If not, are you a homeowner anyway?



X

27col

somethingcorporate wrote: »

The unfortunate thing is, it would have been in black and white on the document they no doubt signed.

Agreed, no doubt they signed it. But I doubt whether they actually read it. Or, if they did, that they understood what they were signing for.