Mother wants debt inherited from dead son's loans forgiven.

[maroonandwhite]

Just saw this on Yahoo and was wondering your opinions on this.

[url="http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/mom-wants-dead-sons-loans-forgiven-110019277--abc-news-savings-and-investment.html"]http://gma.yahoo.com...investment.html[/url]

Just my personal opinion but if she co-signed on the loans then she is responsible for them. Isn't this the type of stuff life insurance would cover?

Also don't take me for cold hearted person. I sympathize for her son's death and don't think it would be wrong for the private lender to bend a little in some ways, but totally forgiving the loan is a bit much IMO. Edited November 30, 2012 by maroonandwhite

[Jonnin]

mmm tough lesson about cosigning ... something to never do.

[maroonandwhite]

The detail that stuck out to me was how quick the federal loans were forgiven. Wonder who is making up that money? And +1 on the dangers of cosigning.

[babelt]

As a banker I have has situations were a husband dies but whoever signed that note with them is still responsible. Even if someone didn't sign for it, if there was collateral you would have no choice but to collect on that collateral if someone didn't take care of the note. If there was no collateral you would have to file a lean against the estate. I'm sorry but bankers can't give money away. I have student loans, if in the case that I pass away there is enough life insurance to cover my debt. People just need to be more financially responsible. I truly believe that the loan provider should not be pressured into forgiving this loan because of pressure from idiots that don't like to pay bills. I fell very sorry for the pain that this young man's death has caused to the family, but they signed a contract that has to be up held.

[DaveTN]

Her statements in that story remind me of when the guy went around the Democratic National Convention and was asking people if they thought corporations should have limits on profits.

Sorry she lost her son. We are going to pay for two of the loans; she will need to find a different source for the third.

[RobertNashville]

I feel for the mother; I can't hardly imagine the pain involved in losing a son at such a young age plus someone who is helping to support the young grandson that her son left behind. However, I agree that a co-maker should be held responsible for where they place their signature; in fact, I'm in total agreement with Dave Ramsey in that no one should ever co-sign for another but if you are going to do so, understand the potential consequences and prepare for them.

[Sam1]

The purpose of a cosigner is for someone to be held accountable if the person getting the loan is unable to pay. Bad situation, but this is the reason places require cosigners, if they dished out $50,000 for him to attend school and the loan company was not relieved of the debt, then they should not be expected to eat the loss.

[gjohnsoniv]

As sorry as I am for the loss, I don't see why that debt should be relieved. That's also the danger of being a cosigner.

[RobertNashville]

If she really doesn't have the money (rather than just not being willing to do what's necessary to pay the loan) then it's almost a moot issue anyway.

All this lender(s) can do is sue and assuming they win they can then seek to place a lien on property (if there is any) and/or try to take wages but in most states, the amount of wages that can be attached is fairly small...plus there are slow-pay motions, etc. that, given the woman's age, seems to me to make it at best problematic for the lender to ever collect much.

[maroonandwhite]

[quote name='RobertNashville' timestamp='1354303460' post='852957']
If she really doesn't have the money (rather than just not being willing to do what's necessary to pay the loan) then it's almost a moot issue anyway.

All this lender(s) can do is sue and assuming they win they can then seek to place a lien on property (if there is any) and/or try to take wages but in most states, the amount of wages that can be attached is fairly small...plus there are slow-pay motions, etc. that, given the woman's age, seems to me to make it at best problematic for the lender to ever collect much.
[/quote] Good points.

off topic but I just noticed your "name" under you username and it made me chuckle.

[Guest uofmeet]

The only person I will ever co-sign with is my wife. Because we already decided there is only one way we could get rid of each other.......

However, Like many have already stated, I feel sorry for her loss, but she is still obligated to pay back the debt.

If you didn't want to be responsible for the debt, shouldn't of signed for it.

[luvmyberetta]

When you co-sign, it's still a contract. One local bank I've delt with has a option to "insure" your loan. If you should die, the loan would be taken care of instead of your family inheriting the debt. This happened a few years ago when my uncle died of a heart attack &, thankfully since he took the extra loan insurance, his widow didn't have to worry about the loan on top of funeral arrangements & all the other things she had to deal with after loosing him. If you had a co-signer, the most they would have to pay would be the interest & not even that in many cases. Edited November 30, 2012 by luvmyberetta

[10-Ring]

I'm in agreement with the rest of the crowd here. This is a responsibility that she took on when she decided to cosign. It was not hidden, there is no surprise. This is what life insurance is for, financially responsible people have life insurance.

[Guest uofmeet]

After thought I just had,

The title is very misleading.


They are the mother's debt now.

The son doesn't have any debts anymore,

[maroonandwhite]

[quote name='uofmeet' timestamp='1354304336' post='852966']
After thought I just had,

The title is very misleading.


They are the mother's debt now.

The son doesn't have any debts anymore,
[/quote]Fixed it

[TGO David]

When my dad died a few months ago he left behind a lot of debt and not enough life insurance to cover it all. So we're liquidating a lot of the estate to cover it. No one's forgiving those loans and we sure as hell didn't expect them to or ask them to.

Life sucks sometimes.

[RobertNashville]

[quote name='maroonandwhite' timestamp='1354303635' post='852959']...off topic but I just noticed your "name" under you username and it made me chuckle. [/quote]

I'm glad it provided a chuckle...that was bestowed on me by another member, quite recently in fact (although I can assure you that he did not intend it to be funny).

[maroonandwhite]

[quote name='RobertNashville' timestamp='1354304864' post='852975']
I'm glad it provided a chuckle...that was bestowed on me by another member, quite recently in fact (although I can assure you that he did not intend it to be funny).
[/quote] Yeah I was keeping up with that thread and remembered it.

Sorry to hear that David. My wife's grandpa's estate had been in Limbo now for over a year because some things weren't taken care of before his death. I know how troubling it can be when these things linger on.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

It's up to the bank to make that decision about her co-signed debt, not the taxpayer, or a petition, which is
what will happen when she gets what she wants. Being sorry someone dies is a completely different issue
from debts incurred. Mixing the two can be dangerous and destructive to the people who live and act
responsibly. I understand her dilemma, but I can't see relieving one's debt for that reason.

There is something called bankruptcy for that.

[Smith]

Uh, isn't that the purpose of a cosigner?

[maroonandwhite]

The saddest part about this whole thing is that she got 200,000 signatures asking for the debt to be forgiven. Of course with the state of things now I guess that shouldn't surprise me. Where do these people think this money comes from?

[jgradyc]

Gee, you'd think that out of those 200,000 people who signed the petition to forgive a measly $10,000+ loan, someone would have thought, "Hey, if she just sends an email to these 200,000 people asking for a paypal donation of 25 cents to a charitable fund set up online to pay off the debt, she could potentially raise $50,000... enough to pay off the debt and support the two-year-old for a while."

Instead, everyone gets wrapped around the axle about what is fair or not fair. Guess what... life is not fair. It's been over two years. It's time to quit feeling sorry for yourself and do something.

[maroonandwhite]

But that would require those 200,000 to give up what is theirs! I would also wager that those 200,000 probably have a few unpaid debts as well and don't think they can swing to give away $1.

[RobertNashville]

[quote name='maroonandwhite' timestamp='1354306891' post='852993']
The saddest part about this whole thing is that she got 200,000 signatures asking for the debt to be forgiven. Of course with the state of things now I guess that shouldn't surprise me. Where do these people think this money comes from? [/quote]
I'd bet real money that many of those people also believe that they need to have their mortgages modified and principle forgiven just because their home went down in value instead of up in.

There are no end of people who think that contracts should only be enforced when it's favorable to them!

[Caster]

Typical entitled, whining, cowardly, "somebody gots to pay fo my babies" mentality. People of amerika need a lesson in personal responsibility. If she didn't want the responsibility she shouldn't have signed the stupid papers. She should have to pay every cent owed.
I'm sorry she lost her son but it's the price you pay for breeding and/or signing your name.