Hartford Debtor Rights Attorney Discusses Being Removed as a Cosigner

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Question:

I am the cosigner on my granddaughter’s student loans and have paid them while she was in school for almost 5 years and have fully paid them now for 2 years until losing my job.  I now have entered into an agreement to pay 116.84 a month for what seems like forever, and they are still calling me on the other 2 loans. She has never paid a dime, even though she works and I do not at this time. I am 63 years old and my husband and I have a one year old daughter to raise. I am unemployed and live on my husband’s income who is not on the loans. My credit has suffered and my health is beginning to be affected. I want to know if I can be removed as the consigner and get these calls to stop.

Answer:

The bad news is that you can not unilaterally remove yourself as a guarantor on these student loans.   Even if you filed for bankruptcy, 98 percent of all student loan related debt is not dischargeable in bankruptcy so that is not a solution.  The good news is that if your are drawing a pension check each month or social security, they can not garnish these funds.

The other  good news is that you can stop embarrassing and harassing calls from the debt collectors seeking to collect on the other two (2) student loans that you co-signed.  You have rights even as a co-guarantor on a defaulted loan, and a good Debtor Rights Attorney can help you to sue to enforce these rights and/or send letters to demand that the harassment cease.    Assuming it is not the creditors themselves that are calling you on the other two loans (which would makes the analysis more complex), under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act these debt collectors can only call you after 8am and before 9pm and they can only call no more than 8 times a day. There are also many other rules that they must follow.   You can also send the debt collector a “cease communication” letter whereby you inform the debt collector that they may no longer contract you – in which case they will send you one final letter acknowledging your request.

I strongly recommend you speak with a experienced Debtor Rights Attorney to fully  protect yourself and your husband’s assets.

Are you being called constantly on a debt that you cosigned on?  Contact experienced Hartford Debtor Rights Attorney Eric Foster to guide you through the process.

This legal question was provided by Avvo and answered by Eric Foster an experienced Hartford Debtor Rights Attorney.  This does not consent an attorney client relationship.