AboutMike Weikle Expertise Banking Lender Liability; Insurance Coverage; Consumer Rights; Bank Fraud; Criminal: White
Collar Crime; Fair Debt Collection Practices Act; Directors and Officers Liability
Experience Commissioned National Bank Examiner 7 years; President of Two Community Banks; Division Claims Specialist for American Bankers Association Sponsored Insurance Program; Carter Member of the Bank Fraud Team of the Office of the Comptroler of the Curency "OCC" (National Banjk Examiners); Attorney previously representing FDIC and Resolution Trust Corporation as well as consumers and commercial borrowers in claims against the banking industry; Former Data Processing Systems Examiner for the OCC; Expert Witness on variety of banking issues in both state and federal court.
Education/Credentials Certified Public Accountant;
JD -- West Virginia College of Law - Order of the Coif
Data Processing Training Old Dominion Bank and IBM
Question Any recommendations of where to get a personal loan for debt consolidation (about $5k) with a co-signer who has good credit?
Answer When the co-signer has good credit, the best place to go is the co-signer's bank where he has established credit. The reality is, however, many people who have excellent credit do not really want to be a cosigner. They do not want to risk having a person with bad credit (even a family member) damage their good credit by failing to make a payment or failing to make any payment. And, the banker generally understands this. Even though you are the one supposed to make the payment, the bank is not going to make a loan to you that your co-maker cannot afford to pay back in the event you fail to make any payment.
My advice has always been to a potential co-maker is that unless you are comfortable in making the payments if the maker (your friend or family) defaults on payment -- Don't Do it!!!!. If the maker fails to pay, the Bank does not have to wait for the maker to come up with the payment. Any failure to make a payment by the maker does the same damage to the co-maker's previously good credit.
If you have excellent collateral to put up, that may increase the willingness of the Banker to make the loan if the banker is reasonably certain he will have no problem attaching (repo) in the event of a default in payment.
