Can a so called friend write me down as guarantor for an amigo loan even though I have said no?

Dianea1

Someone I have known for a couple of years suddenly asked if I could be guarantor for a £3000 amigo loan so she didn't  get charged interest from her credit card. I told her no but I am concerned she knows my address and possibly my account number as I have my debit card with me whilst at her house. Could she try and write me down as guarantor?

MallyGirl

As a guarantor you have to sign up and the money gets paid to you for you to pass on. If they did manage to forge all the paperwork the money would still come to you so you would be able to call a halt at that time.

TrickyDicky101

Dianea1 said:

Someone I have known for a couple of years suddenly asked if I could be guarantor for a £3000 amigo loan so she didn't  get charged interest from her credit card. I told her no but I am concerned she knows my address and possibly my account number as I have my debit card with me whilst at her house. Could she try and write me down as guarantor?

Well done you for saying no!  Please, please don't change your mind on this point - a real friend won't seek to make you feel bad about it.

Grumpy_chap

Unless your "friend" plans to just default straight away, wouldn't the interest and fees on an Amigo loan be just as expensive as credit card interest?

As a friend, perhaps you could advise this person to get proper support and advice from somewhere like Stepchange or maybe post their SoA in the DFW board of this site.  This would help them get properly sorted for the future rather than trying to rely on short term bail out without addressing the underlying causes.

phillw

Grumpy_chap said:

Unless your "friend" plans to just default straight away, wouldn't the interest and fees on an Amigo loan be just as expensive as credit card interest?

How did you see through their cunning plan?

MinuteNoodles

I'd have rather paid the interest on the credit card than the Amigo Loan. The interest rate on an Amigo Loan is 49.9% APR which is higher than almost all credit cards, even sub-prime ones like Vanquis and Capital One.

Dianea1

MinuteNoodles said:

I'd have rather paid the interest on the credit card than the Amigo Loan. The interest rate on an Amigo Loan is 49.9% APR which is higher than almost all credit cards, even sub-prime ones like Vanquis and Capital One.

Yes the amigo loan would be more interest. It turned out she had £1000 she made off eBay which was enough to pay off most of her credit card

Dianea1

phillw said:

Grumpy_chap said:

Unless your "friend" plans to just default straight away, wouldn't the interest and fees on an Amigo loan be just as expensive as credit card interest?

How did you see through their cunning plan?

Yes the amigo loan would be more interest. It turned out she had £1000 she made off eBay which was enough to pay off most of her credit card and she had been putting money into an ISA

MalMonroe

I've just done a search of 'Amigo' and apparently it's 'an award winning guarantor lender' . . .  I never knew there was such a thing. But how can anyone justify giving out awards for this kind of  company?! 

Yes, just say NO. She can write down as much as she likes but you have to agree and sign to that agreement.  No credit card interest I know of (although I must admit that my experience is a bit limited here) starts off at 49.9%.  Although Amigo DO say that they are friendly and affordable so maybe I'm doing them an injustice by thinking of them as creepy leeches.

That kind of 'friend' we can all do without.

macman

If you want to help, borrow £3K and lend it to her yourself. Them when she defaults, you'll be repaying it at a reasonable rate of interest, rather than Amigo's.

PRAISETHESUN

macman said:

If you want to help, borrow £3K and lend it to her yourself. Them when she defaults, you'll be repaying it at a reasonable rate of interest, rather than Amigo's.

Something tells me that OP don't want to help this "friend"....

@Dianea1 hopefully that's all there is to this, but I'd just keep an eye on your credit files a bit more closely over the next few months just in case. The paranoid side of me is thinking that they could just try to fraudulently take out debt in your name, using the personal details that they know, sidestepping the whole issue of having you as a guarantor.