A Quick Question

[IncrsCreditScore1]

My granddaughter has been working extremely hard to increase her credit scores and get rid of all the bad debts.  She has paid off credit cards which were always in her name and the name of her former significant other, even though he is the only one who ever used the credit cards.  Once she paid off the credit cards, she always closed them, so that they could no longer be used.  She wanted to clear her name and establish herself as an upright person.  

However, he is still trashing her credit scores. That is because he has quit making payments on his car.  The problem is that he and she both signed the papers for his car loan.  She has been told by the auto loan company that she cannot get her name removed from the loan.  Do any of you know of any way she can go about getting her name removed?  They have been not been together for over a year.  She has used her own money to pay off all of his bills.  But, she no longer has any money, so cannot pay off the car.  I am hoping you can make some good suggetions.  I am at a loss, because I never went through anything like this.  Any advice will be appreciated.

[StartingOver10]

Unfortunately, the only way to get her name off the loan is for her ex to refi it into his name alone or sell the vehicle and have the loan paid off. 

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately there is nothing she can do other than persauding her ex to refinance the vehicle, but if it is currently past due and not being paid I HIGHLY doubt that will even be an option. When she signed paper's with her ex, she signed a legal contract with the bank which puts her on the hook for the loan as well. Joint loan's still make both applicants financially responsible for the loan, in fact many lender's have "co-signer's" sign a page that explicitly states they are financially responsible for the loan if the co-app does not pay. Sounds like she needs to get the vehicle from him and catch the loan back up and either keep it and continue making payments or selling the vehicle.

[IncrsCreditScore1]

Thank you so much for your quick replies.  It is a very unfortunate situation.  I don't know if she has the stamina to try to get the vehicle from him or go through him harassing her relentlessly.  It is just awful that this will remain on her records for such a long period of time.  She has truly learned a lesson from this.  And is learning how to deal with money without him telling her what to do and when and where.  He is a control freak.  But he can be very charming.

[StartingOver10]

Is she aware that if the vehicle is repo'ed that she will still have to make the payments on the loan + the repo fees. The lender will sell the vehicle for pennies on the dollar and any deficiency amount of the loan will have to be paid by your granddaugher or her ex or both.  They can get a judgment against both parties on the loan. Depending on your jurisdiction, the judgment can last 10 years or even 20 years and then be renewed if not paid. It accrues statutory interest the entire time it remains unpaid.

I mention this because many people are totally unaware that the repo does not extinguish the loan. It makes it worse. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Unfortunately there is nothing she can do other than persauding her ex to refinance the vehicle, but if it is currently past due and not being paid I HIGHLY doubt that will even be an option. When she signed paper's with her ex, she signed a legal contract with the bank which puts her on the hook for the loan as well. Joint loan's still make both applicants financially responsible for the loan, in fact many lender's have "co-signer's" sign a page that explicitly states they are financially responsible for the loan if the co-app does not pay. Sounds like she needs to get the vehicle from him and catch the loan back up and either keep it and continue making payments or selling the vehicle.

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She needs to do this and find the stamina to deal with this. As others have mentioned, it's a bad bad situation if it goes to repo.

[IncrsCreditScore1]

I truly thank all of you for your advice.  I did try to talk to her a little about him refinancing the car into his name only; she said he would never do that because his credit score is much worse than hers.  I have not worked up how to approach her about the possibiity of a repo.  I do know he is out of town for about a week, but doubt that she still has a key to the car or would even be willing to take it.  My stomach gets all roiled up just thinking about it.  Am going to try to talk to her tomorrow.