Should parents cosign for a student loan? – This is a really tough question that at the end of the day only you as the parents can answer yourselves but anyway I thought I would share my thoughts on the matter.
Should parents cosign for a student loan?
There could be a number of reasons that a student either can’t get a loan at all or can’t get enough money for what they need. That may be able to be changed by having someone cosign a loan and of course that means the parents in most cases.
When you cosign you become responsible for all payments on the loan if the main name on the loan stops paying. That basically means it becomes your legal loan.
There are of course many reasons why you may want to cosign and many why you may not!
Cosigning can give your child access to enough funds so that they can concentrate on their education, or so they can take more credits in a year and not be distracted by having to scrape by with too many hours in low paying part-time jobs.
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Of course on the flip-side you are saying to your kid that you are willing to pick up the slack with the payments if they can’t pay them! You are also creating a trust bond that if broken could cause a serious issue in the parent-child relationship!
So what do I think?
I’m with a lot of other bloggers who agree that if it is ever possible to avoid you should not cosign. If you do feel you have no alternative you really have to make sure you are willing to pick up payments if your child can’t and not hold a grudge against them. Of course they may never learn to deal with their own cash if you keep helping them!
Parents that do help their kids through college get a lot of respect from me so I understand the pressure to want to enable your child access to these loans!
I’s love to hear your take on it.
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