How does my college loan payments affect my parents credit?

**Wino** · 08-29-2012, 06:55 PM

If they cosigned and you don't make the payments, then it is just as if they had not paid the payments. Not figuratively. Literally, they did not make the payments.

Firstly, your father should not have cosigned at all.
Secondly, now that he has, if he finds you aren't paying (which apparently you are not), he should pay the payments himself; however, since YOU get all the bills and notices, he doesn't know if you aren't paying until it hits his credit report, at which point it is too late.
Thirdly, you are dishonoring your father and your agreements (and thereby yourself) by not making the payments. I don't care about your reasons. I live in the Middle East, so your whining about fees - plus the exaggerations of the wire transfer expenses - doesn't faze me. They're just BAD excuses for you not to honor your word.
Fourthly, you have no excuse for not paying other than sloth, greed, or stupidity. As your writing indicates it is not stupidity, it is either greed or sloth. If you're Catholic, I think you might want to ask a priest about those two attributes.

If you were my son, I'd pay the whole loan off, and tell you that you're on your own financially for the rest of your life. I'd also tell you that I'm ashamed of the way you're abdicating your responsibilities. But you're not my son. I know this because he pays his debts as agreed.

Sorry to sound so harsh, but I wrote this as if I were writing it to my son. This is the way I talk to him: no sugar-coating, and not falling for his lame excuses. I bet your father is no stupider than you - which I've already discounted - so he knows you're reneging on your obligations just like I do. Willfully reneging, I should have said.

**Wino** · 08-29-2012, 06:58 PM

Oh... and welcome to the forum.

I'm not really the arse I probably came across as above, but I have a short fuse with my kids when it comes to them keeping their word. Paying your debts as agreed is exactly that, "keeping your word."

**barkingfrog** · 08-29-2012, 07:08 PM

I understand the harshness in your reply, let me explain a few things I should have previously stated. I have not missed a payment, therefore his credit shouldn't have been affected by non-existent late fees. While it might sound like I am complaining about the transfer fees then yeah, I am, but that 7-10% is a considerable amount of money for me. I am not abdicating my responsibilities at all, I have done everything on my end agreed upon. And trust me, I was raised very strict and straight to the point. No sugar coating as well. I have been financially responsible almost my entire life. Most kids in the US don't work 30 hours a week during highschool to pay for college. It is paid for usually by their parents or their just take out loans as they start school and don't think about saving beforehand.

**barkingfrog** · 08-29-2012, 07:10 PM

Originally posted by Wino View Post

Oh... and welcome to the forum.

I'm not really the arse I probably came across as above, but I have a short fuse with my kids when it comes to them keeping their word. Paying your debts as agreed is exactly that, "keeping your word."

Heh thank you.

**Wino** · 08-29-2012, 08:06 PM

Originally posted by barkingfrog View Post

I have not missed a payment, therefore his credit shouldn't have been affected by non-existent late fees. While it might sound like I am complaining about the transfer fees then yeah, I am, but that 7-10% is a considerable amount of money for me.

Tell your dad this, and that he needn't be accusing you of things you have not done. Tell him to look up the "bearing false witness" part with his priest. Harshness is a two-way street.

I can help you with the transfer fees. If you get a local visa-logo debit card, you can use that to pay your bills. They charge only a currency conversion fee, usually 1 to 3%, typically closer to 1%. I have my bank set up for direct withdrawals, and I use a wire agency to transfer cash back for those things I cannot use my Visa-logo for. I pay about 2% of my transfers, overall, including the visa stuff.

So, that's just part of the expense of living overseas. If you cannot live as well overseas as you are living in the US, then you should move back.

**barkingfrog** · 08-29-2012, 08:12 PM

I have actually another way to take care of the wiring, I just have to send over 5k and its a much better rate. Also, hes Jewish.

**LMA** · 08-31-2012, 04:16 AM

If you owe $10k in loans the minimum payments should be well below the $1,000/month you are saving. As longs as you are making the payments there will be nothing negative reported on his credit.

He is right, if he cosigned on the loans then it's the same things as if he had taken the loans so any delinquency would be reported on his credit but not any late fees. I think you need to educate him a bit and make sure you show him you are making the payments.

**BMEPhDinCO** · 08-31-2012, 09:19 AM

but I still took out around 10k to pay for the last semester This isn't much, you should be fine.

Anyways, I have been receiving extremely frustrating emails from my dad complaining about how I need to pay off my loans asap... Sounds like he's not used to having loans, but really, as long as you pay them each month on time, student loans are usually 10 years long for repayment periods.

As for the email, if he did co-sign, then yes, they are "his" loans too and if you don't pay on time, it will hurt them as much as you. That is the direct and the indirect is that this will reduce his score, making it harder to get money later, like for your brother. If you have a copy of your loan, check it out, both of you should have signed. If they took out that $10k you mentioned WITHOUT you, then you wouldn't know and you wouldn't be responsible to pay anything on it. But if he's referring to the other $10k from your senior year, you should see on the loan who holds it, you, him, or both (he is implying both). If both signed it, then yes, if you can't or don't pay, they have to. If you don't pay on time, it goes on all credit reports of all signers.

As long as you are paying the loan each month, you can send back money any way you want - or even keep it there! The loan is separate from your other savings in that it is a bill, just like rent, cell phone, etc. As long as you treat it like that and pay it by the deadline every month, how you get savings back into dollars is up to you.

Hopefully this clears it up for you as per your direct questions. It sounds like he wanted this to be a short term loan, but if you check your loan statement, it will tell you how long it will take to pay off at the current minimum payments - usually it's more than the 1 year you've paid so far!

Finally, one person suggested using a debit or credit card, this is an option but usually they charge more if you have to do this, see if the company will give you a rate reduction for taking it from a bank account in the US. Then, see how much your current bank will charge to do an ACH transfer into that US account. Since your parents co-signed, you can use their US bank for this.

**TBH** · 09-04-2012, 07:54 AM

I agree, you should tell you're dad you're paying the loan on time. You should also ask him to clarify whether the earlier amount, that you thought they paid directly, was actually a loan. You might want to pull a complete credit report on yourself so you can see what debts are being reported to the credit agencies.

Also, if your dad is going to be yelling at you via email about something you're not even doing (making late payments) I would pay your school loans off as quickly as possible and never have any financial interaction with him again. It sounds like you are a very successful young person and you're doing a good job managing your money. You don't need him yelling at you.

How does my college loan payments affect my parents credit?