I was offered 5000 to put my name on a loan as a cosigner for an aqquaintence...

I was offered 5000 to put my name on a loan as a cosigner for an aqquaintence. Other than tanking my credit if she defaults is there any reason not to do this?

>tanking my credit if she defaults

This is a good reason. Remember, there's a reason she can't find a cosigner.

I dont plan on buying a house in the next 7 years. It really seems like free money

Id be interested in something like that. Where should i go to find someone? Craigslist?

Yeh but having ahitty credit means youll overpay for everything

Youll lose much more than 5k over 7 ears if yhis requires bankruptcy or just fucks your credit normally

Don't do it user. Not just tank your credit if they default you're liable too. Which means the bank is going to come after you to pay up.

absolutely, 100% do not fuck up your credit, no brainer, just don't do it.

cosigning for a car?

don't do it. i work in auto finance and see cosigner credit messed up constantly. don't cosign for something unless you're willing to pay for it; and in the event that the signer is not able to pay, you have to go through civil litigation and jump through flaming hoops to acquire the collateral (which is never guaranteed)... so you may be left sacrificing your credit for nothing

plus, as an addendum, you will be jointly sued for deficiency balance if the main borrower has the collateral repossessed and does not reinstate on top of all of the terrible fees assessed

>if
>she
I think you mean when

Someone offering to pay you $5,000 to co-sign a loan is a deadbeat or a crook. That alone is reason to not co-sign the loan.

In addition to taking on the risk of having your credit trashed, collectors will harass you non-stop. Sad thing is, the collectors bend or break a lot of the laws regulating debt collection so it's very difficult to get them to stop bothering you. Since you're seriously considering this offer, you're obviously not rich enough to have an army of lawyers to turn the tables on unethical debt collectors.

Finally, depending on the kind of work you do, having bad credit could prevent you from getting hired.

what is this credit thing everyone talks about?
i'm not murrican and i can't place it.

What is she getting the loan for?

Better option is making her an authorized user on one of your credit cards for the same money & raising her score like that.
Protip do not give her the card.

Cosigning is generally a really bad option reserved for family.

How do you figure that? The price of groceries and gas wont go up just because i have bad credit

Your rent, credit card bill, phone bill, and any and all loans will increase exponentially in costs due to increased credit risk from your credit tanking via your friend's (probable) default on the loan you cosigned on

How big is the loan s/he's taking out? If it's 10k maybe do it. If it's 25k maybe don't.

It's all about the risk involved with becoming a de facto debtor in the car where your acquaintance can't make payments.

Im not even doing the deal but hold on while i laugh at this
>rent
My mortgage is fixed and will not be raised by my credit lowering
>credit card bill
I pay my bill off at every month to avaoid interest. Youd be a fool not to
>phone bill
Why in the fuck would my phone bill raise? Are you delusional?
>any and all loans will increase exponentially
Future loans yes. Although i dont plan on buying a new house anytime soon and i always buy used cars cash
>your friend's (probable) default on the loan
Not my friend. The reason im against it is because im sure it will be a default. And i dont really think $5000 is worth putting up with a collections agency. Even tho i could probably just block the number. Just seems like easy money and if i needed it i would do it. I have no idea why you think credit os so important. After you buy your house and have one or two decent credit cards youre done. Unless you plan to move which i dont

If you buy cars in cash and own a house and are such a baller why do you need $5000?

It just doesn't add up

Did you even read the post? And buying a shitty 01 ranger for $1400 on craigslist hardly makes me a baller. Seriously quit falling so hard for the credit meme. Its a handy tool sure. So is a nailgun and a circular saw. But unless youre buying or building a house you probably dont need those tools

ok....

>My mortgage is fixed and will not be raised by my credit lowering
Enjoy never being able to refi
>I pay my bill off at every month to avaoid interest. Youd be a fool not to
credit card companies can and will lower your limit if you credit suddenly tanks
>Why in the fuck would my phone bill raise? Are you delusional?
if you ever want to switch carriers, the deposit will be enormous and yes, your bill will be higher. Why would you want to kill your options later in life?
>Future loans yes. Although i dont plan on buying a new house anytime soon and i always buy used cars cash
but once again, why limit your options?

What kind of loan are we talking about, OP? A mortgage? An unsecured loan? How much is it for and how much would you be able to pay if you had to fully assume the responsibility of paying it down?

>Remember, there's a reason she can't find a cosigner.
Not necessarily. Lenders look at several things besides just credit score when determining who to give loans to, and it could just be that OP's friend wants to get a loan for a larger amount, with a lower monthly payment, or lower down payment than she could otherwise qualify for with her own income level and employment history.

For example, she could be the type of person who works odd jobs when she needs to, and thus doesn't have a "steady and continuous" employment history, but nevertheless has a long history of being able to pay her rent on time and good credit.

Then again, if she does have bad credit, then I'd agree that OP needs to stay far away from that. She may not think much of a single missed payment, but once you start getting missed payments on your likely good record, your credit score will start to plummet. If this is for a home loan and she ends up getting foreclosed on, then you're both pretty much fucked for the foreseeable future (although it is possible to cure your credit to some degree after a foreclosure, you don't want to go down that road).

I'll tell you what my uncle told me.

If someone's coming to you for a loan, that means banks, whose sole means of surviving is knowing who can and cannot give back money, has deemed it a bad idea to loan them cash.

Do you really think you're smarter than banks at the money game, user? If so, give it a shot.

This is retarded. OP never said that he intends to "outsmart" the banks, and cosigning on loans is far from being unheard of. I have a friend whose dad cosigned on a home loan with him because he was a college student and didn't have any real income to speak of at the time. He worked over the summers and rented several of the rooms in the house to his friends, so he actually ended up being able to cover the mortgage payments without his father's help while he was still at college. Like I said in my last post, there are lots of reasons why banks might not give a loan, and just because a borrower might be considered high risk doesn't mean they are definitely going to default.

You're a fool if you have to ask. Go ahead, get yourself into shit.

Are you fucking stupid??

For consumer shit they're almost always going to want those cosigners unless you've got a fatass credit report with a high score, then you'll get some respect.

>this

It's not your credit you have to worry about, it's the bank placing a lien on your house because you owe them money.

don't listen OP, they're just jealous that they are not getting 5k for signing their name. Your credit isn't even worth that much anyways, you can always use your 5k to buy a new one.

Dumbass, if you need 5000 just sell $5000 of call options on XOM. Sell them 3 months out at a strike = to the sqrt of the stock price added to the price.

You're welcome. In 90 days you've got $5000!

>Enjoy never being able to refi
interest rate is under 3%. Id say im fine on that
>credit card companies can and will lower your limit if you credit suddenly tanks
I sincerely doubt that but ok. You may be right. Even with a default my cards not going to get cancelled.
>if you ever want to switch carriers, the deposit will be enormous and yes, your bill will be higher. Why would you want to kill your options later in life?
The bill is not higher you clown. Deposit maybe but thats for super shitty credit. Mine wouldnt go that low with one default. And why would i switch? I dont see att declaring bankruptcy in the next 7 years
>but once again, why limit your options
For $5,000

Like i said im not taking the deal. But once you have a house and a decent card its free money. You act like losing a hundred points or so off my score is going to ruin my life. Youre a fucking idiot

T. troll

Thats not a troll. Credit wont make or break a person life. Its more an indicator of how responsible they are. I feel sorry for all you who worship the credit repots