Understand your responsibilities with a joint debt

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You should understand your responsibilities for the debt before you:

  • a loan, application, lease, or mortgage
  • use another person's credit card
  • guarantee any debt

When you co-sign for a debt, you and the other person are equally responsible for paying it off. If one of you does not make payments, the creditors can call either of you and ask for the money. If you or the other person does not pay the debt, collection agencies and creditors can call you for the money, or can sue you in court.

When you are the for a debt, you are agreeing to pay the debt if the person does not pay back the . If the other person does not pay the debt, collection agencies and creditors can call you for the money, or can sue you in court.

You should always make sure you are able to pay the full amount of any debt that you co-sign for. If you applied for a joint card, you are each responsible to pay back all the money for bills put on the credit card.

Before you get a , you should make sure the other person is able to pay off the loan. It can help to find out their . If the person has a bad credit score, it's more likely that they will not pay the debt.

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