Can My Wife Use Me As A Guarantor To Make A Loan?

[Will2011]

Hello,

My wife wants to buy a house. The property costs a bit more than she is monthly allowed to pay back. Knowing that I am on non-imm extension based on marriage and I get paid overseas (meaning I'm not working in Thailand), could I stand security showing my foreign income so that her loan is approved?

Thank you

[Satcommlee]

I doubt it... you can up and leave whenever you like leaving behind nothing for the bank to repossess.

To be honest if you don't have a work permit and a regular job here, your wife is probably more creditworthy than you.

[Will2011]

That makes sense, but I'm still struggling to find any written bank policy regarding foreign guarantor though.

[billd766]

A slight difference for me but back in 2001 we bought a pickup truck on finance. It was to be in my name and despite having a work permit etc I had to get a Thai guarantor. My wife didn't have a job so she couldn't do it but her friend and old boss stepped up to sign as guarantor.

[BlueScouse]

My wife borrowed money from the Krung Thai Bank. I had to supply a pay slip and a letter from my employers stating monthly salary and start date of employment.

Length of borrowing agreement was limited to my retirement age. I'm on a non-O muti entry visa.

[Will2011]

BlueScouse, are you working abroad or in Thailand with Work Permit?

My wife borrowed money from the Krung Thai Bank. I had to supply a pay slip and a letter from my employers stating monthly salary and start date of employment.

Length of borrowing agreement was limited to my retirement age. I'm on a non-O muti entry visa.

[TheAceFace]

Will yes you can, I did the same. I was working outside Thailand and coming in every other month, my salary was paid into my Thai bank. As long as your married and can provide pay slips you should be ok, age could go against you though (depending how old you are).

Our mortgage was through SCB bank and we got 80%, easy process mate.

Good luck.

[Suradit69]

That makes sense, but I'm still struggling to find any written bank policy regarding foreign guarantor though.

"...to find any written bank policy regarding foreign guarantor though."

Bank policy, whether written or not, is unlikely to be uncovered on a thread in a TV forum. The only policy that will have any bearing on your situation will be the policy used by the bank officer you deal with. The policy will probably be applied differently at different branches and probably differently by different officials at the same branch.

Have your wife speak to someone at a bank branch to gauge the reaction. Maybe you could open an fixed account at the bank, deposit a few hundred thousand and agree you won't have access to the funds for the first x years of the loan. Might make a difference if the home is for personal use or intended to generate rental income. Maybe helping your wife to increase the down-payment would make a difference.

Most likely there will be some work-around, but the only person who can tell you definitively what's possible will be a loan officer.

Edited September 17, 2014 by Suradit69

[Will2011]

Will yes you can, I did the same. I was working outside Thailand and coming in every other month, my salary was paid into my Thai bank. As long as your married and can provide pay slips you should be ok, age could go against you though (depending how old you are).

Our mortgage was through SCB bank and we got 80%, easy process mate.

Good luck.

Thank you for your comment, The Ace Face!

Perhaps the only difference is that in my case I wire irregular amount of money in my thai bank account. My income is deposited overseas, and I wire according to needs.

Let's see how things go.

[Will2011]

That makes sense, but I'm still struggling to find any written bank policy regarding foreign guarantor though.

"...to find any written bank policy regarding foreign guarantor though."

Bank policy, whether written or not, is unlikely to be uncovered on a thread in a TV forum. The only policy that will have any bearing on your situation will be the policy used by the bank officer you deal with. The policy will probably be applied differently at different branches and probably differently by different officials at the same branch.

Have your wife speak to someone at a bank branch to gauge the reaction. Maybe you could open an fixed account at the bank, deposit a few hundred thousand and agree you won't have access to the funds for the first x years of the loan. Might make a difference if the home is for personal use or intended to generate rental income. Maybe helping your wife to increase the down-payment would make a difference.

Most likely there will be some work-around, but the only person who can tell you definitively what's possible will be a loan officer.

Thanks for your comment, Suradit69. I'm trying to collect expat loan experiences to learn more and adopt the best strategy, if there's any.

[BlueScouse]

BlueScouse, are you working abroad or in Thailand with Work Permit?

My wife borrowed money from the Krung Thai Bank. I had to supply a pay slip and a letter from my employers stating monthly salary and start date of employment.

Length of borrowing agreement was limited to my retirement age. I'm on a non-O muti entry visa.

Working abroad.

[apiwan]

Scb was going to do it for us. Wanted my bank statements and audited accounts..

Failed on the land had 2 chanotes. Bank wanted them merged.

Owner of development said no.

Just to get us to finance with him

[Gonsalviz]

I was guarantor for my wife on a car. Since that has been paid and we are debt free.

She tried to buy a small house (new) for the girls to live while they go to school. She showed documents for the car, her land (a substantial amount) her bank accounts and tried to use me as guarantor showing my income. She was turned down because she didn't have any credit line.

Same as the USA. Can't borrow unless you owe. Strange concept.

[Will2011]

I was guarantor for my wife on a car. Since that has been paid and we are debt free.

She tried to buy a small house (new) for the girls to live while they go to school. She showed documents for the car, her land (a substantial amount) her bank accounts and tried to use me as guarantor showing my income. She was turned down because she didn't have any credit line.

Same as the USA. Can't borrow unless you owe. Strange concept.

That's interesting. Does Thailand have a credit score system like in the U.S.?

My wife made a personal loan last year she could fully cover now. If there's a credit score, would it be possible to check it like online?

[Gonsalviz]

I was guarantor for my wife on a car. Since that has been paid and we are debt free.

She tried to buy a small house (new) for the girls to live while they go to school. She showed documents for the car, her land (a substantial amount) her bank accounts and tried to use me as guarantor showing my income. She was turned down because she didn't have any credit line.

Same as the USA. Can't borrow unless you owe. Strange concept.

That's interesting. Does Thailand have a credit score system like in the U.S.?

My wife made a personal loan last year she could fully cover now. If there's a credit score, would it be possible to check it like online?

I don't think there is a score per se. It is up to the borrower to show all assets. None of my wife's had an outstanding balance.

They told her the reason she could not get the loan is because she had no outstanding loans.

[fletchsmile]

It s possible to be a guarantor on a loan to your wife.

We had a mortgage and my wife was a housewife looking after the kidsvso no salaried income. They lent to her guaranteed by me based on my income. I did have a work permit and work in Thailand though.

Different banks have different credit approvals and underwriting standards but it should be possible even if your income is from overseas to be a guarantor.

Thai banks do have their own internal scorecards for lending which they will use to assess your application. They wont tell you what score you get. However if turned down you arr entitled to know why.

They ll be interested in things like your wife s history with the bank, your wife s general credit history they can access from the national credit bureau NCB, her income, expenditure etc. They will look at key ratios like DSI debt service to income ratio.

Depending on all that they will consider whether they want you as a guarantor and will take your financial situation into consideration.

So there s no clear cut yes or no you can see beforehand if your wife is a little short on meeting requirements. You ll only get your answer from the banks you approach. It s possible though.

Cheers

Fletch

[Will2011]

Gonsalviz, thanks for sharing that info.

I see why they didn't accept your wife's loan, as they didn't have history whether she could repay, but that's a bit strange because she didn't have any credit. Reasonable individuals may think that it's actually a good point she didn't have any outstanding balance, but in Thailand things are quite different!

[Soutpeel]

I was guarantor for my wife on a car. Since that has been paid and we are debt free.

She tried to buy a small house (new) for the girls to live while they go to school. She showed documents for the car, her land (a substantial amount) her bank accounts and tried to use me as guarantor showing my income. She was turned down because she didn't have any credit line.

Same as the USA. Can't borrow unless you owe. Strange concept.

That's interesting. Does Thailand have a credit score system like in the U.S.?

My wife made a personal loan last year she could fully cover now. If there's a credit score, would it be possible to check it like online?

I don't think there is a score per se. It is up to the borrower to show all assets. None of my wife's had an outstanding balance.

They told her the reason she could not get the loan is because she had no outstanding loans.

Yes there is a credit "score" in Thailand, but it not a number its a letter "A, B, C"... I get a letter once a year advising my credit rating in Thailand

you cant check this on line as far as I am aware..

I think you have misunderstood what she has been told, more likely turned down because she has no credit rating, not because she has no outstanding loans

As some others on here I have stood as guarantor on a loan here through SCB, they considered only my income, needed 12 months payslips, a letter from the company stating my position was a permanent one in Thailand, copy of WP, Copy of the PP, took about 6 weeks start to finish, had to go the bank only once to sign off on it, pretty painless process...

[Gonsalviz]

I was guarantor for my wife on a car. Since that has been paid and we are debt free.

She tried to buy a small house (new) for the girls to live while they go to school. She showed documents for the car, her land (a substantial amount) her bank accounts and tried to use me as guarantor showing my income. She was turned down because she didn't have any credit line.

Same as the USA. Can't borrow unless you owe. Strange concept.

That's interesting. Does Thailand have a credit score system like in the U.S.?

My wife made a personal loan last year she could fully cover now. If there's a credit score, would it be possible to check it like online?

I don't think there is a score per se. It is up to the borrower to show all assets. None of my wife's had an outstanding balance.

They told her the reason she could not get the loan is because she had no outstanding loans.

Yes there is a credit "score" in Thailand, but it not a number its a letter "A, B, C"... I get a letter once a year advising my credit rating in Thailand

you cant check this on line as far as I am aware..

I think you have misunderstood what she has been told, more likely turned down because she has no credit rating, not because she has no outstanding loans

As some others on here I have stood as guarantor on a loan here through SCB, they considered only my income, needed 12 months payslips, a letter from the company stating my position was a permanent one in Thailand, copy of WP, Copy of the PP, took about 6 weeks start to finish, had to go the bank only once to sign off on it, pretty painless process...

If you re read carefully all that I wrote, you are saying the same thing. I stand corrected on the credit rating but not having a credit rating is the same as not having any outstanding loans for one begets the other.

[sgtsabai]

I was not able to guarantee a loan for our house. I am retired, decent income but no bank would touch us. My wife is essentially a "housewife" and although she manages the family farm, receives no direct income from it. Therefore, she had no job. Frankly I thought with my income we would have no problem, wrong! The developer financed and about the only thing good about that is I was able to convince her to use a real mortgage payment plan instead of the one she was using for everybody else, you owe X amount of money therefore that is what you pay the interest on for the entirety of the loan. Saved me quite a bit of money. Oh, aside from the fact I could if I wished, even after paying on the house/land for 3 years, pack up and leave (the bank would make money on that) the real reason, told to me after about 5 tries, was I was too old. Does the bank not have insurance that pays if you die? I guess not. Oh, I can get on internet, contact my bank back in the states, haven't been back since spring of 2010, and get signature loan overnight. And they know I live here and won't ever return to the states. TIT...lol.

[misterphil]

I'm guarantor for my wife on our car. I'm in the same situation as you, work abroad and wire money as and when I need it. They did want to see my Thai bank book, and how much had gone in it in the last few years. We are going to try for a home loan soon so please let me know how you get on.

[Naroge]

Why don't you ask the bank or financial institution that will provide the financing?

Their opinion is the only one of value for you. Different ones could have different rules.

[fletchsmile]

I was not able to guarantee a loan for our house. I am retired, decent income but no bank would touch us. My wife is essentially a "housewife" and although she manages the family farm, receives no direct income from it. Therefore, she had no job. Frankly I thought with my income we would have no problem, wrong! The developer financed and about the only thing good about that is I was able to convince her to use a real mortgage payment plan instead of the one she was using for everybody else, you owe X amount of money therefore that is what you pay the interest on for the entirety of the loan. Saved me quite a bit of money. Oh, aside from the fact I could if I wished, even after paying on the house/land for 3 years, pack up and leave (the bank would make money on that) the real reason, told to me after about 5 tries, was I was too old. Does the bank not have insurance that pays if you die? I guess not. Oh, I can get on internet, contact my bank back in the states, haven't been back since spring of 2010, and get signature loan overnight. And they know I live here and won't ever return to the states. TIT...lol.

Yes as a general rule the maximum allowed tenor of the home loan will be 60 minus your age. If someone is going to be a guarantor then even if your wife is comfortably under 60, the tenor will be linked to the age of the guarantor if they're older.

Does the bank not have insurance? Actually that's part of the problem, it's not easy in Thailand to get mortgage related insurance to cover the mortgagee past 60. If you can get it the premiums tend to be prohibitive.

Without the insurance just think in the context of the average life expectancy in Thailand being about 74, while some may live longer, there's quite a decent number don't make it that far, and you can imagine the headaches and bad debts the banks could end up with, so why would they go there.

In the context of US lending policies... enter the Global Financial Crisis a few years back, the part lax home ownership policies and lending had to play in that, and the dire straits many US banks got in... and to an extent some still are

Cheers

Fletch

[White Tiger]

You may be asking the wrong question here.

You can act as guarantor for anyone you want. But how good a guarantor you are will depend, as others have said, on your credit worthiness. And as other posters have said, it’s very important to be acceptable to the lender as a guarantor.

So you should probably be asking if you would be acceptable to the lender as a guarantor. And what the likely cost of that will be.

The only way to get a certain answer is to ask the lender – another poster has said that already.

You’ve already mentioned that the lender may take the view that you are a high risk – because from their point of view there is a risk of you absconding (by that I mean leaving the country and not honouring your promise to guarantee the loan). The lender will take a commercial view of that risk and charge an appropriate rate of interest to cover that risk. So if they think there is a big risk of this happening, the interest rate will be higher.

As other posters have said the lender may have a policy not to allow foreigners to act as guarantors (presumably because they have taken the view, based on experience, that the risk of absconding is too great, meaning that there is a high likelihood that the guarantee will be not be honoured). In this case, try another lender who may have a different policy and a different experience of foreign guarantors.

Hope these thoughts are of some help. Not sure if I add anything new – perhaps just capture the earlier posts in this thread in one place.

[dBrown]

I recently sold my house, and the foreign husband of the buyer, who works offshore was accepted as a guarantor for the loan by Bangkok Bank.

He said it include a quite expensive insurance against income loss.

[hgma]

The answer is getting a Thai person (with a reliable company backing him/her) to guarantee the loan.

At least that's how it works for us.(wife non-Thai)

[carbine1125]

My wife bought a house with a loan from the SCB bank. Her salary was not enough so they used me as a guarantor.

[luckylarry]

Yes you can, I used proof of UK pension, SCBank, only 2,000000 baht but our property was worth 10,000000 at the time, since payed back happy about that, SCB can be farang friendly.

[Moobahn]

On 9/18/2014 at 1:28 PM, fletchsmile said:

It s possible to be a guarantor on a loan to your wife.

We had a mortgage and my wife was a housewife looking after the kidsvso no salaried income. They lent to her guaranteed by me based on my income. I did have a work permit and work in Thailand though.

Different banks have different credit approvals and underwriting standards but it should be possible even if your income is from overseas to be a guarantor.

Thai banks do have their own internal scorecards for lending which they will use to assess your application. They wont tell you what score you get. However if turned down you arr entitled to know why.

They ll be interested in things like your wife s history with the bank, your wife s general credit history they can access from the national credit bureau NCB, her income, expenditure etc. They will look at key ratios like DSI debt service to income ratio.

Depending on all that they will consider whether they want you as a guarantor and will take your financial situation into consideration.

So there s no clear cut yes or no you can see beforehand if your wife is a little short on meeting requirements. You ll only get your answer from the banks you approach. It s possible though.

Cheers

Fletch

May I ask you which bank that was?