Friendship gone WRONG

[Anonymous]

Hello Fico freinds, 

Hope everyone reading this had a great but most importanly safe holiday.

Couple months back i signed for a car loan for my "best friend", turns out he was late 7 times on the car payment. 

I was not aware of this until i wanted to get myself a car. Dealer told me that my credit score went dowwwwwn to 620.

I'm wondering if  there's  a way i can prove that i wasn't the one making the payments for the loan. 

I LOVE to turn this nightmare over to my so called friend.      

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello Fico freinds, 

Hope everyone reading this had a great but most importanly safe holiday.

Couple months back i signed for a car loan for my "best friend", turns out he was late 7 times on the car payment. 

I was not aware of this until i wanted to get myself a car. Dealer told me that my credit score went dowwwwwn to 620.

I'm wondering if  there's  a way i can prove that i wasn't the one making the payments for the loan. 

I LOVE to turn this nightmare over to my so called friend.      

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Sorry but you won't be able to do that. If you guaranteed it, you're responsible.

[Gunnerboy]

I suggest sitting down with your so called best-friend to clarify expectations.  If BF wants no part of paying for the loan, then you'll need to catch up on the late payments.  You might want to look into refinancing.  Tough lesson.

[Anonymous]

It is obvious why your friend needs a cosigner because of things like this.  I hope you don't get stuck with all the payments.

[pinkandgrey]

You co-signed for it which means you accepted responsibility if the other person failed to repay.  That’s the whole point of a co-signer. Unfortunately there’s probably not much you can do except not co-sign any future loans. I know. Hindsight’s 20/20. 

[DaveInAZ]

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@pinkandgrey wrote:

You co-signed for it which means you accepted responsibility if the other person failed to repay.  That’s the whole point of a co-signer. Unfortunately there’s probably not much you can do except not co-sign any future loans. I know. Hindsight’s 20/20. 

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Sorry, but I have to add to Hindsights: Get better friends. What kind of person gets his "best friend" to co-sign for a car loan and never bothers to make a payment and never lets their friend know they're wrecking their credit so they can't now get a car on their own. If it were me I'd convince my "friend" to loan me the keys so I can drive the car to the convenience store and get a couple six packs of beer, and then never return. Now you have your new car, just need to catch up the payments and tell your "friend": Get a life.

[iv]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello Fico freinds, 

Hope everyone reading this had a great but most importanly safe holiday.

Couple months back i signed for a car loan for my "best friend", turns out he was late 7 times on the car payment. 

I was not aware of this until i wanted to get myself a car. Dealer told me that my credit score went dowwwwwn to 620.

I'm wondering if  there's  a way i can prove that i wasn't the one making the payments for the loan. 

I LOVE to turn this nightmare over to my so called friend.      

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I'm guessing that you didn't/don't realize what co-signing actually means?

The whole point of having a co-signer is that BOTH of you are individually on the hook for the payments - that's why the lender is more willing to make the loan... they can go after you BOTH for the payments.

So... "proving that you weren't making the payments" would NOT help your case here - having shared access to the online portal for the loan and either ensuring that your "best friend" paid on time, or paying it for them would have been the only way to avoid this. (Well, or refusing to co-sign in the first place!)

You also may not realize that this can go beyond just some late payments - if your "friend" defaults on the loan, the lender could try to collect any remaining balance from you, even after repo-ing the car. You'd have the lates, a repo, a collection, and might be out-of-pocket to pay it off.

Friends don't let friends co-sign... for other friends!

(Family, maybe, sometimes, but try to avoid that, too.)

[SBR249]

Sorry to hear but there really isn't much you can do unless you are also listed as a co-owner on the title. If that were the case, you could possibly use legal means to compel a sale or buy-out. 

I hate to beat a dead horse, but there isn't much you can do to get your name off the loan. The point of the bank requiring a co-signer to make a loan at the terms given is so they can hold both people responsible for the loan. If they allowed the co-signer to bail at the first (or 7th) sign of trouble, then there wouldn't be much point to co-signing a loan. At this point if your name isn't on the title and your friend is a persistent deadbeat, then there's a good chance that you'll be forced to pay toward an asset that you won't even own to the benefit of your friend. You have my sympathies, but from a legal standpoint, you have very little recourse due to the nature of the contract you signed. 

[AverageJoesCredit]

Dont cosign for anyone even family. Your credit is yours and if anyone should mess it up let it be you alone. Sorry to hear of this.

[TheVig]

Another example of co-signing gone bad. Another example of somebody’s stink becoming someone else’s stink.