Never Ever Cosign a line of credit - Indebted for LIFE

[Lynn McGeein]

Did you know you can be indebted for life to someone with no way to see the statement, close the account or even find out the current billing address for a loan you cosigned (or they say you cosigned, which is my problem) to be able to contact the primary holder? And if it is a check credit, line of credit, or credit card, did you know you can be liable for eternity with the only way to release your obligation is with permission of the primary account holder? Even if you pay it off personally, they won't close the account without the primary's permission, and the primary can just run it up again and you would still be liable. Unbelievable. This person can pay late and ruin your credit for eternity, and there is not a thing you can do for the rest of your life under today's rules.

I just contacted the policy departments at the FTC, OCC and FDIC to ask for a policy change for cosigners for loans with no specific end date. For these type of loans, check credit, line of credit, credit cards, etc., there should always be a required renewal at least every 5 years where the cosigner must agree in writing to continue cosigning the loan, and if they don't agree, the primary can either take it on himself, get another cosigner, or the balance freezes, no more debt allowed, and it must be paid down by either primary or cosigner, either monthly or all at once, until at $0 balance it is automatically closed.

I am dealing with a very strange situation where apparently 26 years ago, the bank says I cosigned for someone. I have no knowledge or recollection of this, but I am not allowed to even see the document I supposedly signed 26 years ago as it has the primary account holder's information. It never showed on my credit report until this year so I knew nothing about it. I have had no luck contacting the primary account holder and am now, thanks to some great advice here, trying to work with executives at the bank directly. But this glaring and alarming hole in consumer protection needs to be remedied. Spend 5 minutes searching and you can see just how many people there are trying to deal with cosigner issues. Who knew? What a mess.

If you cosign a car loan, even a mortgage, you understand immediately what you are signing for, the payment, balance, and how long you will be liable, and you can make an informed decision on whether to help that person or not, with worst case being you pay off the balance yourself and close it out. With these open-ended loans, you are on the hook literally for life (and beyond, with your estate), with no recourse ever and no way to remove your name if the primary account holder won't allow it to be removed. It was a shock to discover this, and I hope they see how absurd it is and put an end to this with a required renewal policy enacted.

In the meantime, just wanted to warn as many people as possible not to ever cosign for anyone on this type of loan as it could last an eternity, and you are just stuck.