Have People Asked You to Co-sign for Them?

No, and we have been asked a few times. We said no because we knew the people who asked had been irresponsible in other ways in the past, so it was highly unlikely that we wouldnt get stuck with a payment or two and worse credit. Another had no job. One time myhusband put something on a credit card for a family member and ended up making a few payments on that! One time a friend needed $500 and I happened to have it, she was a hard working responsible person who I knew would pay me back and she did. So basically I think you need to know the person, their habits ect to make a decision. Sometimes people just have bad luck or get in a bad situation, others are just idiots you cant trust.

The only person that ever asked us (hubby and I) to co-sign was his sister, and she's got bad credit and can not manage her finances, so no way.

When I rented my first apartment, they required a co-signer and I had a close friend sign for me. At the time I had a good job and some credit (the days before FIFO).

Depending on the person, the situation, the amount of the liabilty, I would consider co-signing. For example, I wouldn't cosign for a $20,000 car for someone who didn't have a good job history and wasn't good with finances. I might co-sign for a $2,000 car loan for someone who typically had good credit and steady employment, but was just going through a difficult time.

I co-signed for my stepdaughter to rent her first apartment. I made it clear to her that I had no intention of paying her rent. She had a job, kept the job, paid her rent. So it wasn't a problem.

Dave Ramsey would say NEVER co sign a loan.

No, I would not co-sign for anyone. We have perfect credit and we intend to keep it that way.

Someone needing a co-signor obviously cannot maintain their finances and or have good credit therefore it would put my perfect credit at risk so no way.

I would never co-sign for anybody, and I would never ask anybody to co-sign for me. Actually, we have bad credit because when we were younger and a LOT stupider, we ran up credit card debt we couldn't afford to pay, and had a lot of bad debt charged off... but anyway, my cell phones are in my mother's name. I pay the whole bill every month, on time. She has no problem with that. Co-signing a loan though? Never, not ever.

I'm upset with the people on here that say that just because you ask someone to co-sign on a loan it means you cannot manage your finances or have bad credit. How dare you judge me? You have no idea what is going on in my life and what it took to even ask someone to do that for me! Thank goodness there are some people out there who have faith in others. I pay my bills on time or early. My credit rating is great! I can and do maintain" my money just fine.

My husband and I would never cosign a loan for someone else. I will not cosign my son's student loans either once he gets to an age to go to school. While it is a nice gesture, our family has worked too hard to get where we are to take the risk. We also have never asked anyone to cosign for us.

Only once. I don't think we knew just how screwed we would have been back then if the family member hadn't paid back her student loan.

That said, we wouldn't do it now for ANYONE. We're older and smarter than that. I love our families, but I wouldn't co-sign one single solitary thing.

By the way, many people who can't keep a job pretty much feel that others "owe" them, which could be why your brother felt entitled to expect you to do this for him. Good for you saying no!

Dawn

Nope. I'd never do it. If you need a cosiger, you clearly don't take care of your credit. If you don't take care of your credit, why would I trust you with mine?

My SIL has a phone on our plan. I guess if she stopped paying we would be responsible for her portion of the plan, which is around $40 a month. It wasnt that big of a deal to me, we havent had any problems with her paying it. My MIL has asked to borrow money before tho, and we said no way. I would not cosign on anything unless I was fully prepared to take over the payments.

Boy, does this bring back memories! My husband co-signed a loan with a guy from another country who wanted to buy a car in the US - barely knew him, and long story short . . . the guy ended up dead under questionable circumstances, had totalled the car & stopped paying on the loan, and we never saw a penny from the guys' life insurance. Paying off the loan for a car we never saw or used took 2 years!

I've cosigned a couple of times. Once to help my sister get a car. She made the payments on time and everything; however, I had to postpone applying for a home loan until it was paid off (which she paid early).

Another time didn't end up so well, I don't remember how I got bamboozled into it. I was put on the spot and young and stupid. I cosigned for my best friends boyfriend to buy her an engagement ring. The relationship didn't work out and he ended up returning the ring and getting himself a watch. He ended up burning bridges with a lot of people including me and I ended up settling his debt, I think that cost me around $500.

I also have had to be cosigned for. I didn't have any credit yet and needed a car so my grandpa cosigned for me. It was a $2000. car. It's not always a matter of bad credit but not enough credit, so that helped me actually build my credit.

Nope...will never, ever, ever do that. My mom did it for my brother's car, and she ended up paying for most of it. My brother had to have a van for his job (courier) and couldn't manage the credit and was going to lose his job. I literally loaned him the money, required a promissory note, and required him to put me on the title as the lienholder. If I had not been able to do that, he would have been unemployed before I would have co-signed the loan. As it is, I've got a cargo van that I'm trying to sell because my brother screwed me out of the money and doesn't need the van anymore. Grrrrr.

No, I haven't, thank goodness.
I have never asked anyone to consign for me either.
Our credit is perfect.
In my experience, money & family are never a good mix.
If someone needs money and we have it to GIVE, we do.
Lend? Nah. Coding? Nope.

No one has ever asked us.

They are probably afraid of my husband's reaction. We are Dave followers.

My mom asked me to co-sign a loan for her once. I told her no. She was upset. (She got over it when my now BIL loaned her the money....she hasn't paid him back.)

I won't do it for anyone, ever.

Yes I agree. I did co-sign and I got screwed to the wall. NEVER again.

Yes, I have. All worked out fine.

A long time ago, my husband and I were married about 5 years and we had his "brother" co-sign a loan for us. The money was to consolidate debt and pay for a visit to his parents in Mexico. Even though we both had jobs, I was still in school and we were young so the bank wanted more income. We had the loan paid off a year early. Other than that, we never asked for a co-signer. I have been asked to co-sign or add someone for a credit card and I refused. We plan to buy a single family home within a few years and I cannot take a chance on too much credit or something getting screwed up.

I am a co-owner on some checking accounts though just in case funds are needed in an emergency.

I've been on the opposite end of this - sort of, it wasn't a co-sign thing, but an actual loan. We sold our house in NY but the closing wasn't until 2 weeks AFTER our closing on our new house in VA. We needed the $100k we were getting out of our house in NY in order to buy the house in VA. We borrowed $100k from my husband's parents - for exactly 2 weeks. I guess they had full faith in us! And luckily everything went fine, I suppose the only thing that could've gone wrong would be if the closing in NY fell through. I didn't even let my mind go there. So, was it crazy for my in-laws to loan us $100k? I don't know. I'm just grateful they did. Nothing would have worked out otherwise! I really don't know what we would've done.

I don't ask for co-signers and I won't co-sign for anyone else. Several moms on here say that they have great credit, but need a co-signer... How is that possible? I am not critical, just don't understand that.

I think your smart. I would never and hopefully will never be asked. I also would not ask anyone.

I have loaned money to a few people who needed a small amount for a week or two (and have been paid back) but never more than I could afford to lose. The only exception was when it was something for my son and his dad was supposed to split the cost with me (with work schedule and distance, it wasn't practical for us to meet up before the $ was due) and failed to do so (maybe paid me a small portion but not all) so I was the one that lost out....should have known better and honestly, I didn't loan him money I covered a cost for my son.

My husband on the other hand, came to me about co-signing a loan for his brother to get a reliable vehicle....not a fancy new one but something relatively inexpensive and reliable. I basically told him that I did not want him to do it because with his brother's track record for not keeping a job (quitting when the mood struck), being hard on vehicles, and irresponsible with his debts I did not want that hanging over us. He was friends w/ the owner of the dealership and they had asked him to help his brother. Although he had asked me, he had already decided to co-sign. I was livid. I was told it was a two year loan so imagine my surprise when the paperwork came to my house and showed it was in fact 48 months (not 24) and my husband was not listed as a "co-signer" but was listed as the primary applicant. Imagine my further displeasure when the first payment was late the day we were leaving for vacation! Then towards the end of the loan (after many late payments that we didn't know was late until he had missed the 10-day grace period) I went and made the final three or four payments to get that out of our hair (we had trouble reaching my dear BIL and payment was late again). He still hasn't finished paying us back (paid us about half of it)!

Yes, my husband & I did co-sign a loan, without any horror stories to go with it - thank goodness! I don't know if this helped it to work out in our case, but it made us feel better in the beginning. What we required was that the payment be made to us...then we made the payment to the bank. We just figured that way we would know the payment was being made monthly...we were afraid that if the payment was made directly to the bank that we wouldn't find out about any late payments until 2 or 3 months later & we didn't want that kind of thing on our credit. If you are considering co-signing maybe consider handling it this way.

It was a family member, the loan was only for 3 years, and he wasn't late once. I don't know that we would do it again but we felt good doing it and it all worked out.