How Can A Co-Signer Be Removed From An Auto Loan?
Well this is a hard situation you have put yourself in. Hopefully you were a first time buyer when you got a co-signer and now that you have some credit history behind you, you don’t want to affect their credit and take them off. This would be the best situation you can be in.
If you are in a different situation like you co-signed with a ex-spouse or even worst a boy-friend or girl-friend. You are most likely in big trouble. I’ll talk about both of these situations.
Situation 1(If you had someone else co-sign for you)
Lets do the best situation first. If you are in a situation where you just don’t want to hurt the credit of the person that so generously gave you there credit in good faith and you don’t want to hurt them and get them off the loan. The way you can do this is go to an auto lender (it really doesn’t matter who) and get a refinance auto loan.
You then get the refinance loan just in your name. They may require your co-signer to come in and sign off on the old loan. Hopefully you have good enough credit at this point to do this.
Another way you can get them off of the car loan is to do a debt consolidation loan. This will most likely give you a much higher annual interest rate. So I advise to do this only when you have no other choice.
Situation 2 (If you were the co-signer)
Now if you were in the unfortunate circumstance of being the person that co-signed for someone else then you only have one hope for a release from this debt. That is if the person that you co-signed for did the steps I mentioned above. Otherwise you are up a creek without a paddle or in other words you are responsible for the debt if they ever default on that payment.
You might ask, “Can’t I sue them or if I got a divorce settlement that said that they are responsible for the loan, can that help.” I would answer “You could try.”
If you sue them all you would get is a ruling from the court that they need to pay the loan. Chances are the reason that they are not paying the loan is that they don’t have the money anyway. If they still don’t pay for the loan, the creditors will come right back after you.
If you get a divorce settlement that said they are responsible for the loan, the creditors will not care at all. They will keep coming after you and the person you co-signed for until they get their money or you file a bankruptcy.
So, to sum this whole mess up, if someone comes to you and they want you to co-sign for them, DON’T. Unless you are willing to pay for what ever it is they are trying to buy.
If you want to buy a car and you need a co-signer make sure that you are honest enough to take responsibility for that car or whatever you’re buying. You not only are screwing yourself but them as well.
