So to make a long story short I agreed to co-sign a personal student loan for my brother a year ago. It stated it didn’t have to be paid til Dec 07. However, they started charging in Dec 06. He is now 2 payments behind because he is unemployed after graduating college.
When they spoke to me they said I’m also co-signed on his Visa card *balance is over 11,000. Which I never signed, he wrote my name on it and forged my signature.
Now the lady over the phone told me she can’t verify that, and I asked if it was notarized and she goes “we don’t notarize”. I was like then why did I go to a notary in NY to sign because I was out of state, and she was clueless.
Now my 3 questions.
How bad is his late payments on the student loan going to affect my credit score (which is currently around a 720-740ish)
How can I get off the joint account in which I never signed without pressing legal action since he is my brother and I wouldn’t want to do that.
Can they go after my bank accounts if he doesn’t pay on the student loan?
This is really a bad situation for me, as I assumed that with graduating with a law degree he would be compelled to get a job, but thats not the case because his gf is still in highschool *(yes hes 21 law grad and dating a senior in highschool still) and he is not wanting to leave the area to get a job. Not to mention his my brother so it really sucks, considering I already loaned him 1100 this winter to help out which he hasn’t paid me back yet.
Have mom ground him.
Pay his minimum payments on the Edu Loan
Pull your report to see if his visa card shows under your info - if it does, remove his balls. If it doens’t, should be NBD.
The collection broad may have been pushing buttons with regard to the Visa… its what they do.
And finally, never sign for anyone if you cannot afford to payoff the debt. Better yet, never sign for anyone.
Only way to remove your name from the debt is with a death certificate, or have him take a new loan (solely in his name) and pay off the one that you’re on, aka refinance it.
In other words… prepare to ‘fix’ your credit for the next few years.
My biggest concern is this, he has no job, 11,000 on one card is easily a 200/mo. payment and if he cant afford to pay his loan payment I don’t want to get dicked over on the credit card too when he openly admits to forging my name onto it
Ahh ok, so it would have to go to court first then.
I just didn’t want to go to pay rent like next month to see I was like -300 in my checking.
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Oh its not like you would show up in court with an atty or anything… the collection agency will simply go to a judge, show the contract you signed, and get rubber stamped.
This is how it works with unsecured consumer debt… I CANNOT say if educational debt is exactly the same.
And yes, go beat his fucking ass. As for not wanting to go to court, your brother already brought about what could possibly turn into a family feud type of years long bad blood. :tdown:
I’m not saying fuck your brother over, but he did it not you. If you don’t stand up for yourself and get yourself out of hot water, you will only make things worse.
Another quick question, if he openly tells them about the Visa and signing my name I could theoretically get off it, but would he face charges?
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Probably, and he should. On one hand you could try to help him out, but on the other would you really be doing him any favors if you shield him from the consequences of his own actions? I really don’t know.
Good luck. I hope your brother man’s up and all ends well.
You should probably start paying on stuff…after all, that IS what you were agreeing to when cosigning. I’d rather be out a couple grand and put pressure on my brother to pay me back than ruin my credit score…
When they spoke to me they said I’m also co-signed on his Visa card *balance is over 11,000. Which I never signed, he wrote my name on it and forged my signature.
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Brother or not, he fucked you over big time there, if it was me, I’d take whatever action nessecary to not get dragged down with him
Especially if he’s too lazy to look for a job. By taking no initiative there, he’s more or less showing he doens’t care if his situation fucks your credit.