Credit Cards

[JDizzle]

Hey ya'll,

Here's my situation and i'm wondering if anyone can help or share some info.

Back in 2001 I co-signed a Circuit CIty store card with someone and got a credit limit of 5K. About 4 years ago that person filled BK and cleared all of their CC. Now with my name on it they started addressing the statements to me to finish paying off a computer, i think there is like 1K left on it. However this account does not show up on any of my credit reports and i've been paying it for the past 2 years.

Is there any way to get this to report on my CR and with the 7 year history?? I understand I would take on the account fully which is perfectly fine with me. Anyone have any information on a situation like this. I would love to get the history, the CL, and the perfect payment history, thank you..

[AlishaR]

Have you tried calling the company and finding out? Has your friend said anything about it being on his/her reports still?

[JDizzle]

No i haven't called yet, i was going to do that tomorrow.. I havent talked to the person in awhile so i'm not sure if it's on their report. I just wanted to see if anyone has had a experience like this before.

[thrasher865]

Good for you for paying it.  That is the agreement when you co-sign, but a lot of people don't see it that way, lol.  Because they never expect their buddy to default.  It seems like more often than not, a co-signer backs out of a loan that the main party can't pay. 

But thats completely off-topic.

I would call or write a letter saying that if they expect you to pay it, you expect to get credit for paying it.

[FretlessMayhem]

The cosigner part makes you equally responsible for the debt right, like a joint account?

If that's the case, you should call them and see if you can get them to report the positive history on your CRs.

If the original debtor included this account in the BK though, you might want to think about maybe letting this account be. I'm not sure if they would notate that on your report, which would probably look really, really bad on a manual review.

[thrasher865]

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FretlessMayhem wrote:
The cosigner part makes you equally responsible for the debt right, like a joint account?

If that's the case, you should call them and see if you can get them to report the positive history on your CRs.

If the original debtor included this account in the BK though, you might want to think about maybe letting this account be. I'm not sure if they would notate that on your report, which would probably look really, really bad on a manual review.

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I'm not sure how a lender would view it, but I think the fact that the OP is paying it is enough.  His friend's credit practices shouldn't reflect badly on him.  The fact that OP is willing to actually pay off somebody else's debt is actually a huge positive in my eyes.  Who knows, some credit analyst might think that your friends' habits rub off on you.

[JDizzle]

I think my best bet would be to just call them. I would love to have that credit history and CL on my report; but at the same time i dont want anything on my report that even comes close to someone else's BK.

[athensguy]

Might want to be careful. There are probably lates on that account if the other party went BK.