People agree to these because of who is asking, and discover the size of them a year later — usually in a letter that is addressed to them alone.

What your name is on

Nothing is saved and nothing leaves the page. Mark the arrangements as they are, including the ones you are not sure about. Then mark only the facts you could show somebody — the second group is the point of the tool, and guessing there produces a comfortable answer that is worth nothing.

Why the reach matters more than the amount

• Almost none of these make you liable for a share. The word people hear is "help" and the word in the document is usually "jointly and severally" or "on demand", and those mean the same thing in practice: the whole of it can be asked of whichever name is easiest to reach. Two people on a loan is not two halves; it is the same debt twice over, and the person who can pay is the person who gets asked.
• Several of them cover what happens next, not what happened then. A guarantee written to cover "all sums now or hereafter owing", an account with an overdraft, a card in your name, a phone contract, a utility account: the number you agreed to is not a ceiling, because the other person can still add to it. This is the single most common surprise, and it is answered by one clause in a document you can ask for today.
• The end date is almost never the one you have in mind. A rent guarantee often continues while the tenancy continues, including into a renewal nobody told you about. A guarantee for a loan usually runs until the loan is repaid, whatever changes in your life. Very few of these end because you have changed your mind, and knowing which is which is the difference between a decision and a discovery.
• Paying from your bank account does not by itself make you the borrower or account holder. Liability and credit reporting depend on the agreement and applicable law. Check whose name is on the contract, whether you signed a guarantee, and keep proof of payments made for someone else.
• The credit record moves before the money does. One missed payment on something with your name on it can affect what you are offered on your own mortgage, your own insurance and your own phone, months before anybody contacts you about it. That is why "I will sort it if it goes wrong" is not a plan: by the time it visibly goes wrong, part of the damage is already recorded.
• Nobody can advise you on any of this without the wording. Not a helpline, not an adviser, not a solicitor, not this page. "Send me a copy of what I signed" is a complete, ordinary request, it costs nothing, and it is the first move in every version of this situation.

The four reaches

This is the sort the tool applies. It describes what these arrangements commonly say, not what the law is where you live — every row it shows you comes with the question that checks it against your own document.

• Your share. Rare, and worth knowing when it is true: some arrangements genuinely limit you to a stated portion or a stated maximum. If yours says so in writing, that sentence is the most valuable one in the document — find it and keep a copy of it.
• The whole of it. A joint loan, a guarantee for a specific debt, a joint tenancy: the amount is fixed but the liability is not divided. Any of it can be asked of you, in full, including the part that was spent on things you never saw.
• The whole of it, plus whatever comes next. An account they can still draw on, a card in your name, a contract they can still use, a guarantee written to cover future lending. The exposure is not a number yet, which is exactly why this is the group to deal with first — and usually the group where something can be capped today.
• The whole of it, and an asset. A joint mortgage, car finance, a personal guarantee secured on your home. Here the consequence of somebody else's decision is a thing you live in or drive, and this is the group where independent advice is worth paying for rather than reading about.
• The two questions that decide which one you are in. Can they still add to it? And what ends it? Those two are answerable from the document alone, and every other question about your exposure is downstream of them.

Saying no, and asking for the wording

Both of these are ordinary requests that ordinary people find enormously difficult, so here is language that has no accusation in it.

• Asking for the document: "Please send me a copy of the agreement with my name on it, including the terms." To the lender, the landlord, the agency or the bank — not to the person it is for. They are required to identify you and then, in almost every system, to give you what you signed. You do not have to say why you want it.
• The two questions, in writing: "Does this cover only the amount in the agreement, or also anything further advanced to them? And what ends my liability?" Ask in writing so the answer is in writing. An answer on the phone is worth nothing three months later.
• Saying no without a verdict on the person: "I'm not able to put my name to it. I can help in another way if that's useful." No reasons, no argument about their finances, no counter-offer you cannot afford. Reasons invite negotiation; a position does not.
• If you want to help but not with your name: pay something specific instead. A month's rent, a deposit, a specific bill, a fixed amount — a sum you have decided you can lose. That is help with a ceiling, and a ceiling is the whole difference.
• If you are being told it is a formality: it is the opposite. "It won't ever be used" and "it's just for the file" describe a document whose entire purpose is to be used when the other route fails. Nobody asks for a formality in a hurry.
• If you are being rushed: the deadline is almost always theirs, not yours. One night to read the document is not an unreasonable request from somebody being asked for the whole of it. If one night is impossible, that is information about the arrangement rather than about the calendar.
• Take it to somebody free before you sign anything with an asset attached. A debt advice service, a tenants' or consumer organisation, a union, or a legal advice appointment. For the asset group this is the one place where an hour of somebody's time is worth more than everything on this page.

If your name is already on it

In this order, and none of the first four steps needs the other person to agree to anything.

• Ask each organisation for a copy of the agreement and the current balance. One email each. Until those arrive, every conversation about what you owe is guesswork, including the ones you have with yourself at four in the morning.
• Cap the open-ended ones. A written instruction that no further borrowing is authorised on an account, removing a card, stopping a contract renewing, taking your name off a utility account for an address you have left. These are the moves that usually need nobody's cooperation, and they stop the number growing while you work out the rest.
• Separate the payments from your account. If money for their arrangement leaves your account, that is a decision you can revisit — and if you keep paying it, keep a record showing whose debt it is, because "I paid it to keep the peace" is very hard to unwind later.
• Get your own credit file. It is free or nearly free in most countries, and it is the only place you will see what has actually been recorded in your name rather than what you were told.
• Then, with the wording in hand, have one conversation with the other person. Not about blame — about a specific arrangement: what they will pay, from when, and what happens if a payment is missed. Written down, however awkward that feels.
• If a payment has already been missed, deal with the arrears separately from the argument. You can usually agree to clear arrears without accepting responsibility for the whole debt, but only if you say exactly that, in writing, when you do it.
• If your name was used without your agreement, stop negotiating and get advice. That is not a family disagreement about money; it has its own routes, its own words, and often its own time limits.

What people believe, and what is so

The drill: 16 asks

Sixteen ordinary moments — the tenancy form in a hurry, the car in your name, the card that was only for emergencies, the business guarantee over Sunday lunch, the letter that arrives eighteen months later. Each has an answer that keeps the relationship and the exposure, and one that keeps the relationship and caps the exposure. Pick the one that holds up; every answer explains why.

The card

One page per arrangement. Fill it in as the answers arrive; the bottom half is what you say when you ask.

🖨️ Print the card