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Co-Signing

Submitted by nicole.roman on Mon, 06/02/2008 - 12:45
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I was wondering, about a year and a half ago I co-signed for a loan for a friend and she had told me that she was going to pay and so forth. She was doing good for a while till she stopped paying and so the bank contacted me and told me she had been late and if I could send anything in. I told then that I hadn't been working so I couldn't but I would try and get in contact with her. I tried to contact her for about 6 months but she would not answer my calls or my text or anything I had no way of getting a hold of her. But now I have no idea if she has taken care of it and now I am worried about what happened to the account. What could I do?


I want to interject one moment.
There is a difference between being a co-signer (guarantor) and a co-borrower.

If you are a guarantor, then the creditor has to exhaust its collection efforts (lawsuit) on the primary account holder first, before they can legally come after you. At that point, if you had to pay the creditor, then you could in turn sue your friend. But considering that the creditor would have already tried to sue her and got nowhere with it, then your chances at suing are slim as well.

Quote:

Since you cosigned a loan,you could go after them for failing to honor the agreement.

If you signed as a co-borrower, then that means you actually received a part of the proceeds (benefit) of the loan transaction. In that case, you might not actually have any recourse against your friend, unless you had a separate agreement between the two of you.

For example in a car loan - if you both signed as co-borrower and both of your names went on the car title, then in essence you received some sort of benefit out of the loan (title to the car). In that case, you might not actually be able to sue your friend, unless it was for replevin to force her to give you the car.


Submitted by DebtCruncher on Wed, 06/04/2008 - 05:09

DebtCruncher

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Yeah I didnt not receive anything from the loan. It was all her. But latly I have yet to hear anything either via mail or phone in regards to the loan, So I have no idea what is going on with that.


Submitted by nicole.roman on Wed, 06/04/2008 - 08:13

nicole.roman

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According to my credit report it hasn't been so I have no idea. I have no way of gettig in contact with her


Submitted by nicole.roman on Thu, 06/05/2008 - 06:20

nicole.roman

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Like Goudah said, all states have different laws. The contracts we use here in IL -- it depends where you sign as to your degree of liability. If you sign on the front of the contract, then you are just as responsible for the debt; if you sign on the back of the contract, then you are a guarantor and the creditor has to exhaust/sue the primary first before coming after you....

One idea I have is that they may not realize you are on the account as a co-x. I say that because the computer system my company uses does not readily display when there is another signer on an account. We have to press F-6 in order to see who else is on an account; and most of the time my staff forgets to press F6, so they don't realize there's other signers that they could call.


Submitted by DebtCruncher on Thu, 06/05/2008 - 06:42

DebtCruncher

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