British Holiday Parks

There’s nothing that’s guaranteed to cause acute embarrassment more than asking to borrow money, but when it comes in the form of a guarantor loan, things are a little bit different.

With a loan like this, you secure a loan from a money-lending firm as you would with a normal loan, only you have a friend or loved one behind you to step in to make the repayments should you be unable to do so.

This takes the hassle out of the politics of repayment; after all, as everything is legally bound with the lending firm. Why not draw up a contract between yourself and your loan guarantor, so that should you be unable to pay back the loan, you are at least legally bound to repay your friend, taking the worry and uncertainty out of it for them?

I wish someone had posed this to me as I signed for a guarantor loan for my friend Bill. He wanted to restore his classic car, and assured me my static caravan over at the holiday park wouldn’t be at risk; he could easily meet the repayments and the only reason he couldn’t get the loan independently of a guarantor was that his finances were a bit ‘tied up’ at the moment.

Fast forward a few months and, suprise suprise, Bill missed the repayments. Naively, I hadn’t really considered the possibility of this happening.
I began payments for a loan that wasn’t even meant for me! Had we signed an indemnity before hand, the immense panic I felt during this time would have been averted.

Luckily, Bill managed to pay me back the following year. The moral to this story is, if you are acting as a guarantor, always, always sign an indemnity which will legally bind the borrower to pay you back should you need to step in and make the repayments, and never ever put your static caravan at risk.