Help regarding Amigo Loan - unauthorised guarantor

Fishikiss

Evening all,

A family member was a Gaurentor for a previous loan with Amigo loans and that loan had been completed. A new loan was then taken out and the family member has been set as a gaurentor as Amigo Loans said they could just re-use her again but did not confirm or discuss this with her.

The loan borrower has stopped paying and now this has left the family member in a financial mess.

Is this legal for them to re-use a gaurentor without written or verbal consent?

Assistance please

JuicyJesus

Fishikiss wrote: »

Is this legal for them to re-use a gaurentor without written or verbal consent?

I would be amazingly surprised if this was acceptable, however it will depend on the terms of the contract they signed with Amigo the first time around.

It seems like a VERY onerous term to me if it exists, seeing as it would make the guarantor liable for debts which they have no knowledge of. I'd make a complaint to Amigo on those terms.

Fishikiss

Thanks for your reply.

We are going to request a copy of the loan agreement to check this out. If they have just done this off their own back would the gaurentor be able to claim monies back ?

Thanks

mum2one

you need the copy of the original loan agreement, it seems odd, but they may (only thinking aloud) that the account may have been worded as an account and that person can come back and borrow more money, like an open ended agreement.

Hopefully it is just the brain in overtime x

JuicyJesus

Fishikiss wrote: »

Thanks for your reply.

We are going to request a copy of the loan agreement to check this out. If they have just done this off their own back would the gaurentor be able to claim monies back ?

Thanks

Speaking generally, if the guarantor has not agreed to be a guarantor all liability should be removed from them and any credit reference agency entries against their name regarding the loan should be removed.

terryw

Fishikiss wrote: »

Thanks for your reply.

We are going to request a copy of the loan agreement to check this out. If they have just done this off their own back would the gaurentor be able to claim monies back ?

Thanks

Please come back with the wording of the loan agreement to assist in answering your last point. Thanks

Apples2

But Amigo deposit the Loan money onto the Guarantors account

Once we have spoken to you and your guarantor we will pay out your loan, into your guarantor’s account (we do this to protect them against fraud and to make sure they know what’s going on).

JuicyJesus

Apples2 wrote: »

But Amigo deposit the Loan money onto the Guarantors account

Absolutely nothing to say that a potential fraudster couldn't claim their account is the guarantor's.

Apples2

JuicyJesus wrote: »

Absolutely nothing to say that a potential fraudster couldn't claim their account is the guarantor's.

agreed but these guys have already done it once before using the same accounts seemingly without issue.

JuicyJesus

Apples2 wrote: »

agreed but these guys have already done it once before using the same accounts seemingly without issue.

"Yeah mate, just sign here, we'll say my account is your account, it'll save the hassle of transferring it over." "OK!"

People who agree to be guarantors for high interest loans despite the extreme idiocy of doing so are not likely to be people who see the risk in doing the above.

Former_MSE_Zorica

Hi Everyone,

The below is a response from Amigo Loans on this matter:

Hello forum members,

We wanted to reply so that we can help to resolve Fishikiss's query, regarding their family member, but also to explain the checks that we carry out before paying out a loan, as it seems that there may be some confusion around how we work.

If the guarantor discussed in Fishikiss's post is able to send their contact details to: help@amigoloans.co.uk, we will contact them immediately, so that we can start a full investigation into what happened before the loan was paid out. As JuicyJesus mentioned, if a guarantor was not aware of being used (after being the victim of fraud), we would remove their liability from the agreement.

To clear up some confusion from later in the thread, all loans from Amigo are paid directly into the guarantor's bank account, after checks are made to confirm that the account belongs to the guarantor. If the account provided is not registered to the guarantor, we would not pay out the loan. This means that without having access to the guarantor's bank account, the borrower can't access the loan. This is one of the steps that we take us to ensure that guarantors aren't signed up without their consent.

Also, before paying out a loan, we run through a 20-30 minute phone call with both the borrower and guarantor. During these calls we perform identification checks, fully explain the responsibilities of each person and carry out a budget plan, where we look through the income and outgoings for both parties, making sure that they can afford the repayments. I can confirm that this takes place for all loans, whether or not it is the borrower's first loan with us. A guarantor can't be used for another loan, without going through these checks again.

We are more than happy to assist MSE forum members with queries about Amigo Loans, but it's difficult to help with specific queries without being able to access their loan agreement. If you have a query about anything to do with Amigo Loans, please contact us directly at: help@amigoloans.co.uk and we will arrange for a member of our team to contact you, as soon as we receive your email.

Thank you