Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Pennsylvania

Uh-oh. Co-signing is ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS a bad idea. Even where you are co-signing for Jesus and Mother Theresa. The reason is that is a person needs a co-signer it means one of two things - either the borrower has no credit OR more commonly the borrower has lousy credit. And if they have lousy credit it means they do not pay their bills or pay them on time and that you are only gearing up to be their next victim.

It is common for creditors to contact co-signers when payments are delinquent provided that the creditor had your contact information. And if you were a co-signer this should have been on your credit report even when the account was in good standing (it would be reported under satisfactory accounts if being paid). Once the account went delinquent then the reporting would reflect that fact.

However, I don't know what the creditor knew here. I also am not aware of anything that requires or mandates a creditor to contact a co-signer when an account is late if the lender has the co-signer's information. I have not researched this issue lately - I am just not aware of anything.

Again, this is why co-signing is a bad deal. You and the borrower know from the get-go that this is on your credit report and that if the primary borrower is late or misses one or more payments then this affects the co-signer's credit as well. The borrower, if he/she is in financial straits ought to have the decency to alert the co-signer. But borrowers take the ostrich approach and bury their head in the sand. So your beef really is with the primary borrower rather than the lender.

In the future, make sure that the lender has your contact information and ask the lender to notate the file to contact you if the payment does not arrive. Creditors are not supposed to do this but under certain circumstances creditors will remove derogatory infornation. Have you tried writing to the creditor to see if they will remove the negative information from your credit report? If you can make a good case why this is not your fault and that that you are now paying on time, perhaps the lender will remove the charge-off from your report only as this was not really a reflection of your credit worthiness. I have gotten creditors to do this. Especially if you can show that the lender had your current contact information and dropped the ball by not letting you know soonerr. Good luck!