I helped a friend purchase a motorcycle and he's not making payments. Would a promissory note help me?

Question

I loaned a friend $13,500 to buy a motorcycle. $8,500 was done through financing through HSBC, I put $3,000 of the amount on a credit card, and I added $1,800 in a cashier's check. He hasn't made a payment in 30 days, and the original interest rate of 5% is going up to 17%. If I have a promissory note (which he signed) stating that he is to pay me $500 each month, will that help me if I have to go to court?

Answer 1

A promisary note does of course work in your favor. Keep in mind the statue of limitations ends on promisary notes, it varies from state to state. Here in CA it is 2 years from the last payment he made. My ex did the same thing to me (but for a TV) and I used the promisary note in small claims court and of course won. Good luck, and to keep the friendship, let your friend know that you do not want to pursue any legal action to obtain the money that is rightfully yours and that you want them to have the bike, but you also do not want to lose out on your money which was promised to be paid back.

Answer 2

Of course this will help. As long as there is the amount owed and the interest rates on there. Also you need his signature. What would be nice if you had what would happen if he defaulted meaning if he didn't pay on time the interest rate would go up or the entire amount becomes due. You don't really need that though, a signed promissory will do the job.

Answer 3

Yes a promissory note will help you and make sure you take all the receipts when you took out the loan to court.You need to tell your friend that he needs to pay up or you will have to take actions that are unnecessarily I hope he already signed the note before hand .Don't let it get far behind as your credit is at risk.

Answer 4

Yes.

Talk to your friend and try to get him to pay, give him a limited time to show some sort of support towards you. If this fails (you get stuck with the credit card bill) Get to court, or talk to Legal Aid Services first and see if you can take the motorcycle back because of no payment, because why should he have the bike and not pay?

You don't need to ruin your credit over this guy.
Get working on it, because some courts may book you 6 to 8 months later and the longer you wait, the longer you'll NOT get things resolved.

If you must take this guy to court, you can request he pay any lawyer fees, court costs, and inconvience of your time to go to court esp if you work and have to leave work to go to court (Lost wages).

Answer 5

Yes it will help, but if he's not paying for the motorcycle, he probably won't pay you either. The judge will only tell you what you already know, he owes you the money. The judge's decision will enable you to garnish wages and get money from his accounts, but it's a lot of work.

There's an old saying, "loan to a friend, create an enemy" I've found it to be very true.

Answer 6

You should have had the note BEFORE you loaned him the money. I doubt if he will sign now. You might have to show your credit card statement plus a copy of the cashiers check and take him to small claim's court. Threaten him with that first. Loaning friend's money isn't a good idea.

Answer 7

Yes, he signed the note with the promise to pay. If I'm not mistaken, you can take the motorcycle. Talk to a lawyer to be sure.

Answer 8

Yeah it'll help out, but I would give your friend some warnings before I let it get to that

Answer 9

yes, but they will come after him and re-possess the bike,
so if you can purchase it yourself do it, because it will go
on your credit. And then just sell it and pay everything off.
Nice friend he is !!!! Forget court, buy it and sell it

Answer 10

Yes, I believe it will. But in the meantime, take the bike and sell it.