I Co-signed For A Car and Now They're Going To Prison

[Music] brought to you by the Every Dollar app. Start budgeting for free today. So, I have a brother-in-law who um is uh just a big dumb animal, and I love him dearly, and he came to me and says, "Hey, I got 20 grand I'm going to put down on a car, but I need help. Obviously, I need help." And I said, "You got 20 grand? Okay, fine. I I'll do it for you." So, I co cosigned for him. Oh, your big dumb your big dumb brother-in-law is what you said. Yeah. You got in the mud with this animal, my friend. We can't tell the two apart. We don't know who's dumb and who's smart. I know. And all I can hear in the in the background when I got done doing this is then is Dave saying and and reciting scripture to me saying, "One who signs debt for another is stupid." Yeah, that's right. King James Bible. That sounds like him. I'm like, why did I do this? Not Dave. God. Yes. Yeah, God. God said it. Um, so now I'm I'm in the process of either just letting this go into a voluntary repossession cuz I don't need it. I don't want it. Um, and he's going away for a very long time on a vacation. An unwanted vacation. Is he going to prison? Why? Yes, he is. Oh, boy. So, anyways. Yeah. So, now it's an $1,100 car payment. And um Goodness gracious. What kind of car was this? It was a Chrysler, brand new Chrysler 300. Yeah. Can you not sell it? Can you sell it? Well, I can sell it. So, e either way I can sell it, but right now I the buyout is 62 on it. And to sell it, it's going to be around maybe 50. Is that private party or is that trading? Yeah, that's that's private party. I I listen to your show all the time, George. Okay. So, you're going to be you're 12 underwater. He obviously has no money. He's he's going to prison. And you do you have money? Uh I do, but I I I don't I don't want to do this. I don't want to. You already did it, my friend. It's just going to add insult to injury. You understand what's going to happen with the repo, right? They're going to sell it at auction for like 15 grand and you're still going to owe the difference. Yeah. It doesn't get you out of it. And so it's going to be even worse if you do the repo. So you might as well control the variables here here and sell it for as much as you can and then even, you know, take the cash as a stupid tax and go, "All right, I owe 12 grand to get this out of my life." That's the only way out of this that is going to leave you with the least amount of harm. Okay? because it's it's it's currently the the what we owe on it right now to get this up to is like $5,200. So, it's up for repossession right now. So, I am I am in South Carolina. This car is in Arizona. So, I'm trying to work with my Are you saying that you're behind on payments by five grand? Yes. So, with penalties and taxes and this and that. So, this they're out. They're gonna find this car eventually if I don't come up with it. And you're gonna have dog the bounty hunter at your door, man. I would not go through with this. This is not the way you want to go, Frank. So, I do you have five grand to get current on payments? I do, but my wife won't give it to me. Oh, boy. Does she have control of this money or is she just at you? She's mad at you. She's like, "Don't take that out of our Okay. Okay. Well, it's going to cost you guys as a family a whole lot more than five grand if you do it the wrong way. And so, she's going to be you're going to be sleeping on the couch. You might as well live in this car at this point. Yeah, that's kind that's kind of what I was thinking. That's kind of where we're at right now cuz you know Did you do it without her without talking to her? No, I did it with talking to her and she said, "Don't you know what else?" Proverbs says, "Uh, oh, what is it?" The the woman uh who could find a virtuous wife for her worth is far above his and her the heart of her husband safely trusts her and he will have no life again. Oh, man. Frank. Yeah. Ouch. Man, that this hurts. So, you got to go to her with all humility and say, "I'm I'll make it up to you. I'm so sorry, but this but this but but George's point for real for real, Frank. You you guys are going to end up paying more if this ends up getting repoed. So, it hurts in the at the front end to pay it all. Get rid do it. You know, pay the pay the backlog, sell it, pay the difference. All of that is going to be so much less um painful than the dragging through this repossession and then having to end up owing even more on the back end. So go ahead, rip the band-aid off. Yeah, they could sell this car for 30 and now I'm into it for 30. I And you'll be lucky if they sell for 30. I mean, they're going to sell it for bottom dollar at auction because they don't give a rip and they're going to put you on the hook for the difference plus fees. And so I would get current as fast as possible. sell it as fast as possible. How long ago did you co-sign it? Probably uh almost a year ago. Okay. Yep. And I've been trying to get out of it for the past year and a half. You know, he's like, "Oh, I'm going to get it I'll get it re, you know, I'll get it in someone else's name or I'll I'll uh take care of it. I'll get you off this in six months, Frank. No worries." Yeah. If a sketchy lender doesn't trust you to give you a loan, maybe you shouldn't trust that person. You know what I mean? So, does your brother-in-law have any money that you can get access to? If he's going to prison, he might as well leave you with a parting gift. No. Sounds like he was broke to begin with, though. Yeah, I figured. Yeah, he was. Yeah, he was broke to begin with and just Yeah, big mistake. Big mistake. So, I Well, how much money do you have uh liquid between savings? Is there anything else you could sell? So, it's probably, you know, 10 to 12,000 bucks. So, you don't even have the money to make good on this deal. No, I mean, I I don't have the money to to um like you can get current on payments, but you don't have the difference in cash. Yeah. No, I don't have the difference in cash, so it's going to be Well, I'm I might I've got five closings this week, so Oh, good. Okay, let's hope that if that doesn't work out, you can go to your local credit union and take out a personal loan for the difference and then clean that up fast. That's my that was I'm I've got an appointment with the credit union tomorrow. Okay, good. Good. I hope they're kind to you and I hope you can clean this mess up and I'm glad you learned the lesson and I hope everyone in America did too. Never cosign for anything. Never cosign. I'm going to write I'm writing that on the back of my truck right there. Don't sign for anyone. Never ever. Are you out of debt, Frank? Uh we No, no, that's that's for that's that's another 45m minute conversation. Um but I've got my notepad here of everything I've got and uh manard that total money makeover event you went to in 2003 didn't really stick did it Frank? No. No. Well, it did. It did for it did for a long time and then you know I kind of you know you wander your way back into debt. You can't wander your way out. So he knows the quotes. Yeah, I've got them all. Believe me, I Frank's got the bumper sticker. Oh, Frank, we like you, Frank. You can get back on the horse. We believe in you, Frank. We believe in you. The number one reason I don't cosign for anyone, Rachel, I don't know if they're going to be a future criminal. That's now added to my list of fears. Well, I don't want to hitch my wagon to somebody's Unbelievable. I know. All right. I've learned from Frank. If you hear smart advice 20 years ago, take it. Take it the first time and listen to your virtuous wife. That's right. Amen. Create your free every dollar budget today.