If there’s one thing that I think should be mandatory in high school is that every senior would have to learn about financial advising and planning. When you’re 18, 19 or 20 you tend to think in the now and not the later, or what could possibly happen. We make impulsive decisions at that age, and I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing, but it’s important to always think everything through. At that age you’re not really aware of the twists and turns of life. I wish I knew then what I know now. I would have never got a cosigner for one of my student loans. It was a private loan. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I needed extra money and it was the only way. At that moment I did not foresee the predicament I would be in now. I thought after college I would have a job and I would be able to pay everything back, and if you read my previous posts you know where I’m currently at. I feel so bad that if they can’t get in touch with me then they harass my cosigner.
It’s even harder when your cosigner is someone other than your parent or spouse (if you have one). I absolutely wouldn’t recommend getting a cosigner who wasn’t a parent or a spouse. If you can, try to steer clear of getting a co-signer all together. My cosigner is a person who has really focused on their credit and having a great credit score, and the fact that my private student loan brought down his credit a couple of points I feel terrible. I tried to see if I could get his name removed from my loan, but I couldn’t.
I would like to stress to teens to be careful when looking at private loans. Unlike federal student loans they will not try to work with you. Once you reach a certain year you have to pay, and if you cannot then tough crap. They don’t care unless you were injured to the point where you couldn’t work. I tried to reason with Chase (the loan was through Chase until they moved it to another company), but they couldn’t care less. They were stressing me out so bad on the phone I started to cry, because I got so overwhelmed. It was also a bad timing considering I was going through a lot of things at that time and it was like the world was crashing down on me.
I’m sharing this information to the point where it might help someone who might be thinking about getting a private loan. If a young student is reading this, please think twice before getting one. Nothing is guaranteed in life. You never know what could happen, so please think everything through and cover all your bases. I know that in some situations it might work out, and if it has for you then that’s amazing! I just want to share my experience and hope that it helps someone who might be acting on impulse and wants. I just encourage anyone to think it through and take it very serious.
JustGottaMakeIt 