A little while ago my brother was going through some issues and i made the stupid mistake of co-signing. I co-signed on a phone & credit card for him to help him out. Anyways this was a little over a year ago everything was going fine he was making payments on time and then I made the mistake of not staying on top of it. I went to buy a new car today and found out that he hasn't made a payment on his cell phone line in about 6 months and same with the credit card. My credit went from a 660 to a freaking 470. Is there anyway to get this raised asap. If i call the creditors and pay off everything in full is there anyway to make a deal with them to get this crap off my credit? I spent the last 2 years fixing my mistakes from when I was younger and now this crap. I cant even get qualified for my auto loan now. Please help with any suggestions or routes to take to fix this. Ahhhh!
The first question is, have they actually been charged off? Are they with collection agencies or can you still deal with the original creditor. That may make a difference. If he didn't pay and they didn't notify you, they may have some culpability. I would think that once the account went seriously past due, they should have notified you and given you a chance to pay it.
Hedwig - Could have and are required to are two very different subjects. Could they have notified the cosigner? Of Course they could have. Did they notify the cosigner? No. Are they required to? No. Is the cosigner responsible anyway? Yes Can they trash the cosigner's credit even though they didn't notify the cosigner? Yes, and they obviously did. Does the creditor have an legal culpability? No. Is the OP kinda screwed? Yes, that's what happens when you cosign.
Wrong. Unless it's spelled out in the contract (and I challenge you to find a single contract that includes it), lenders have absolutely NO obligation to notify co-signors if the primary borrower defaults. None. This is exactly why you should never, never, never, never co-sign for ANYBODY - family, friends, whomever - regardless of the situation. But if you truly feel that obligated to help, then you need to take the loan out in YOUR name, instead of co-signing, and have the person pay YOU, then YOU send the payment in. This way, you ARE ALWAYS aware of the account status and, worst case, you're making payments for the loan instead of finding out (too late) that you have to pay off the loan AND your credit history has been hosed. 100% correct.
