Guarantor loans

sammy1793

Worried for my mum! She was emotionally blackmailed into signing as guarantor on a loan by her son (my brother) who has now been defaulting on his payments, he has now been ignoring her calls or texts after she confided these goings on to me. She thought he had changed she thought he was honestly wanting to improve his credit rating! I'm unsure of how the guarantor agreement works or if there is anything that can be done to help her?!
Just a bit of background she lost a son to suicide he took his own life following huge debts he'd hidden. That's how my living brother was able to easily emotionally blackmail her (there's a bad apple in all family's he is ours)

wiltsguy_2

in short, he has shafted your mum.

Guarantor loans are simple, if someone cant get credit as they are uncreditworthy they ask for a guarantor, someone who the lender can legally hold responsible and chase for the money!

Basically it's your mums debt now and she will pay it if he doesn't... so sorry

sammy1793

I was worried that was the case!

wiltsguy_2

sadly it is. is it with Amigo by any chance? as they will be charging your mum 49% approx on the loan too. Can she afford to take out a loan with her bank to clear it to reduce the high APR

sammy1793

Yeah amigo loans! She can't afford the payments after bills etc she survives on £150 a month from her 2nd job which is becoming an impossible job for her to do due to arthritis in her hips! She has her own loan through her bank as she has been trying to clear all credit cards because she wanted to retire one day!

wiltsguy_2

How much is the amigo loan for and what loan period? Is there no way your brother will cough up at all, maybe if you explained how this has left your mum financially

andyfromotley

Your mum has to assume she will never see another penny of your brother and take charge of this debt. Its rubbish but there it is.

She needs to

1. get a settlement figure from the company

2. Move the debt to as cheap a place as possible. Try the loan eligibility checker on this site, or See if they will let her settle by CC, then check if there is a 0% purchase card she can get. Again there is another eligibility checker on here. The checkers aren't foolproof but will give her a good idea.

3. If she has none of these she needs to check if she can overpay the loan without penalty. If so she needs to throw everything she has got at it.

As these guarantor loans tend to be at horrific rates of interest all of the above will help save her a ton of money. The worst option is to do nothing and just sit there paying the loan of over the term, it will be very expensive!

How much was the loan for?
How long has it been running?
What is the APR?
How much are the current repayments?

sammy1793

It is unlikely he will pay he has very little morals when it comes to money it was for £1500 and unsure of the payback terms! It's a lot of money to people like us who have to scrape by month by month!

RuthnJasper

Sammy - get your mum to have a chat with the people at Stepchange (a debt charity). It's a free service and they are very friendly and helpful. Their website is http://www.stepchange.org/. They might be able to help your mum negotiate a repayment plan. Their advice at least would be a comfort.

I hope your brother one day grows enough of a conscience to realise what a dreadful thing he has done to your mum.

Good luck. x

andyfromotley

Its a lot of money to everyone sammy. (or should be!!) Your mum is lucky to have you on her side.

You are doing the right thing to deal with this now. Loans at these typically very high APRs can spiral out of control quickly if not sorted.

sammy1793

Thank you for all the insight and advice my other brother and I will intervene and see if we clear that in full to 1 of our low interest cards and hopefully get a balance transfer to a 0% do we need her permission to pay it?? As she won't allow us to take his debt even if we're willing!?