co signer for student loan being taken advantage of

I cosigned my daughters student loand for her first two years of college costs. I trusted her, and felt I was obligated to help her get a start. I thought she was responsible and had good intentions.

She is now out of college, off with her boyfriend , not communincating , and going into defualt on her Sallie Mae loan. Yes, Sallie Mae is after me as eth cosigner. I have a house, mortgage, taxes, expenses, and I am 50 yrs old, I wil have difficulty managing this now, she won;t even return my phone calls anymore.
I am very angry. I have been a hard working man for 50 yrs and I persoanlly paid off every cent of my student loans.

What can I do ? What are my rights?
This is now in the first month of collection and I have not made any deals or any agreements yet.

As the cosignor of a private student loan, you have the same legal responsiblity as the borrower or your daughter. If they cannot reach your daughter or she does not pay,they will come after you. Make sure that you give them all the info on how to reach her. However, if she does not pay, they will persue you. Do not allow these loans to default.....they will sue you. Plus there is not bankrupty on these loans.

Thanks soaplady,

I realize as a co-signer legally, I am the secondary person and fully responsible, I guess I was hoping there was more I could do, because if the pimary just decides to walk away, its a free ride for them, maybe they should share the burden, why is it not so?
Any secondary actions I can take to pursue the primary?

Have you provided Sallie Mae with all her contact information including her employer?

You need to make it clear to your daughter that BOTH of you will be sued if this defaults.

Soap lady,
Yes,
I have tried to provide contact info, however she does not have much contact capability. My daughters no longer has a cell phone, she lives three states away, and only has an apt address. Her email no longer repsonds as far as I can tell.

Default, Part of me thinks it is only fair that she gets sued, as well as me. The isssue I am wrestling with , is letting her skate fre, by paying the tab, for fear of going thru the default process with Sallie MAe.
If I could let her take the default, so that she feels the pain of the decision, and then I could move on to figure how to fit this into the monthly expenses.
Any futher thoughts?

Unfortunately, you will end up bearing the brunt of the default. It they cannot reach her and the account is not paid upon, yes they will pursue both of you. However you probably have the more visible assets....a job with wages that can be garnished and a home that will end up with a lien on your home.

So does it have to go that way? I mean , It doesn;'t seem fair she skates away free while I bear the burden of her loan for the the next 6 years.
She wil be working soon, I expect, can;t they garnish her wages too?
So, does it come down to simply rolling over with no options.
Any other suggestions or people I should consult with?

Read the prom note and your agreement. It is pretty clear and straightforward. They will pursue both of you if the payments are not made, so unfortunately the best option for you now is to make the payments to keep it from defaulting or ask for an economic hardship forbearance if available. The lender really dont care who the money ultimately comes from as long as it is paid. Do what you can do reach your daughter and let her know that a judgement and defaulted loans will mean to her credit and future.

I'm relatively certain that you personally could sue your daughter if you had to end up paying off the student loans.

I did question an attorney on that debt cruncher and he laughed. He said that you cannot sue another from something you legally agreed to do.

Well yes, they agreed to pay, but only on default. The co-x didn't receive any benefit from the resulting transaction. So why wouldn't their losses be recoverable against the person who did receive a benefit? Essentially I would see that as breech of contract between the primary and co-x.

But it was just a thought. If what you say is true, then that's one more reason I'll never co-sign for anyone.

Unfortunately there is no contract between primary and cosignor.

One could argue that a verbal contract exists between the two.... Only 4 elements need be present for a contract to exist: 1) Manifestation of mutual assent, 2) Consideration (benefit/detriment), 3) Legality of the subject matter, and 4) capacity --- all of which are inherently present.

I won't repeat what everyone said. Basically you can't sue if you signed this. You do owe this money just as much as she does. Sucks but true.

Instead of killing days while the payment is STILL due trying to figure out how to reach your daughter, I strongly suggest you call your lender directly and be the borrower and explore payment options.

You can make this easy on you WHILE you wait on some sort fo exit. Ask for an online account to view and manage your account, view interest, make payments etc. Tell them you're the one who's going to be making payments and need all the options the primary borrower has.

ASK ABOUT FORBEARANCE AND GRADUATED PAYMENTS.

My monthly payment is supposed to be $700 on my 4 student loans. I skipped an entire year with positive credit reporting because i requested forbearance. Then i got on a payment plan paying itnerest only. Now I make partial payments of $250 a month.

All the while my credit is just fine, my loan is in good standing, and I'm in CONSTANT CONTACT with my lender.

It's time to be aware of what they can do to hurt your credit score and personal well-being. Your assets, your home, your car. Be their friend, trust me.

As long as they see you are WILLING to fix this somehow, but just can't, against your will, they WILL work with you. They do all the time. Ultimately they want you to comfortably pay them their money. They don't want expensive and time consuminf lawsuits either - they're people too.

These are PRIVATE loans. Generally there is little to no deferment/forebarance priveleges and the lends do not have to work with you.

I am dealing with this now with a nephew - my husband decided to cosign a Sallie Mae loan and he has not paid in 2 months. Now I am getting a notice saying this will affect my credit now. Just perfect, we are preparing to sell our house and buy a new one. We don't have extra $100's of dollars a month for HIS loan and I also can't aford him ruining our credit so ew can't get another house. Anyone reading this - DO NOT - EVER - COSIGN FOR ANYONE. Not family, not friends, NOBODY.