TOPIC: Do I have to pay back a loan if I did not sign for it?

I got a loan, but they never asked me to sign anything. Now, I cannot pay it back yet, and they are threatening me with a criminal record.
(1) Is it true that a criminal record will reflect on my NBI clearance in case this loan will not be paid off?
(2) What are the legal fees the SMS pertains to?
(3) Do they have the ability to stain my credit rating?

(1) No, you will not get a criminal record. It is not a crime to fail to pay back a loan. Unless you committed fraud, loans are a civil matter. They are just lying to you to coerce you into doing what they want.
(2) If you do owe the loan and they have to go to court to collect it, then they usually are entitled to charging you for their legal expenses (attorney fees and court costs) which can be a lot.
(3) If you do owe the loan, they can hurt your credit rating by reporting the unpaid loan to the credit bureaus.

If you pay back any of the money, then you may be admitting that you owe the loan. So you should be careful what you say to them except to deny the loan and tell them you will report them under the FCRA. If you want to fight them, you need to research your rights and get legal advice.

However, if you did not sign anything, you may not have to pay back the loan. And they may have to stop bothering your per the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA law). They can be liable to your for damages and they are committing a crime by lying to you about giving you a criminal record.

Brandy, did you pay the loan back? What happened? I think the advice you got here was very sound and smart to follow. I also think that if you took a loan from someone you should be fair and try to pay it. Try to get them to offer you fair terms that you can adhere to. You may be happy to learn you don’t have to pay this but believe me, you will live to regret not doing the right thing. I’ve seen this happen so many times that it’s clear that whenever you try to get money you aren’t entitled to (or not pay it back like in your case) bad things happen. This company may also try to get even and maybe do a paid background check on you and who knows what they can find if they dig hard enough. It’s not going to be pretty. Just my 2 cents.