Don’t delay over any debts

Reader’s story is a stark reminder that it always pays to reach out for help if you run into difficulties

I WROTE a few weeks ago about the tragic story of the father who lost his son in a car accident and then found that he still had a responsibility to maintain payments on the loan for which he was acting as a guarantor.

The good news was that the loan company agreed to write the loan off after I contacted them, even although our reader had a legal responsibility to continue to make payments. I agreed to keep both our reader’s details and the name of the loan company out of the piece, partly because the loan company wanted it that way but also because I didn’t want to intrude any more than necessary in our reader’s grief. He wrote to me again last week and I think it’s worth letting you read the contents of his letter.

“I HAVE no doubt many a parent has taken upon themselves the position of guarantor for their children as an aid for them to start out in life.

A few years ago my son asked me to take on the responsibility of acting as guarantor for him and I agreed.

He had a first-class job, moved into his new home and everything seemed to be going so well for him.

Sadly tragedy struck when he lost his life due to a car accident and our lives came to a sudden stop.

As time moved on, I realised that I still had the responsibilities of paying for his loan.

My wife and I continued to make the monthly repayments but this started to take its toll on us in regards to our health with stress becoming a factor, plus the fact that we realised our weekly pension allowances would make continuing with the monthly payments difficult, if not impossible.

Every day became a heavy burden and we were finding it difficult to sleep but we believed we had to continue for the sake and memory of our son. We didn’t want to let him down.

I guess looking back I was never really in the position of being a guarantor but the fact that we owned our home and were working made it no problem.

My son was making his payments and all was well. But once the responsibilities of being a guarantor fell on me, I realised that I would have to ask for help to try to solve the problem of ongoing payments. I have to be so grateful

to Fergus at the Daily Record for taking it upon himself to try to save my situation to the point where the loan company showed so much grace that they cancelled any further payments and the debt was gone.

Please be aware that life’s journey can change so quickly.

What seems to be right at the time can turn out to be wrong.

Yes, I have been fortunate in the outcome for my wife and I and I trust that if someone else finds themselves in the same situation please seek help as the burden can

become so heavy.” The letter explains with great clarity how easy it is to be caught up with a debt situation that you had absolutely no control over, and how a change in circumstances could have meant serious problems for our reader and his family had he not written to me, and had the loan company not been so willing to write the loan off.

But for me the most important part of the letter is the last paragraph, where our reader makes it clear that he and his wife were facing a really difficult time, and that their circumstances would only have got worse that they not shared that burden.

They chose to share their burden with me and, fortunately, in this case I was able to do something to help.

The really important message for us all to take away from this story is that if you find yourself in a situation that is getting beyond your control then you need to talk to someone.

Friend, relative, neighbour, even me, it doesn’t really matter who. Just don’t bottle it all up.