Asked to co-sign a college loan

ucbalumnus
Sun, 27 Dec 2020 21:53:45 +0000

calmomto3:

I’m looking for some advice or pointers from others. My husband was just asked to co-sign a college-related loan for a relative. We are waiting for all the details, but pretty sure this is a private loan taken out by the parents (the relative who asked us) that they are already making monthly payments on.

I.e. it is a loan beyond the federal loans (probably for a college they cannot really afford) and the parents have bad credit or insufficient income/assets to be a borrower or cosigner.

If you have money and generosity to give money to the student or pay their tuition bill directly, that may be a better idea than cosigning a loan, which is likely to go into default anyway, with probably more hard feelings.

Otherwise, it would be a bad idea to cosign a loan that will probably go into default, with plenty of hard feelings along with the financial consequences.