is a distinction between a surety and a guarantor. A surety is usually bound with the principal, at the same time and on the same consideration, while the contract of a guarantor is his own separate undertaking and the guarantor is not liable until due diligence has been exerted to compel the principal debtor to make good any default. There is no privity of contract between a surety and the principal debtor. Rather, the surety contracts with the creditor and is not jointly liable to the creditor. Other common law jurisdictions In India a guarantee may be either oral or written while in Australia, Jamaica and Sri Lanka it must be in writing. In the Irish Statute of Frauds there are provisions identical with that found in the English Statute of Frauds. Civil law According to various existing civil codes, a suretyship, when the underlying obligation is "non-valuable", is null and void unless the invalidity is the result of personal incapacity of the principal debtor In some countries, however, the mere personal incapacity of a minor to borrow suffices to eliminate the guarantee of a loan made to him The Egyptian codes sanction guarantees expressly entered into "in view of debtor's want of legal capacity" to contract a valid principal obligation The Portuguese code retains the surety's liability, in respect of an invalid principal obligation, until the latter has been legally rescinded According to several codes civil sureties are divided into conventional, legal and judicial, while the Spanish code further divides them into gratuitous and for valuable consideration. The German code civil requires the surety's promise to be verified by writing where he has not executed the principal obligation. The Portuguese code renders a guarantee provable by all the modes established by law for the proof of the principal contract According to most civil codes civil a guarantee like any other contract can usually be made verbally in the presence of witnesses and in certain cases (where for instance considerable sums of money are involved) sous signature privee or by a judicial or notarial instrument. The French and Belgian Codes, moreover, provide that suretyship is not to be presumed but must always be expressed Contract law In England the common-law requisites of a guarantee are the same as any other contract. The mutual assent of two or more parties, competency to contract and valuable consideration. An offer to guarantee must