College student - I'm a 'dependent' and my parents won't apply for the Parent PLUS loan or cosign a private loan
Smart parents not wanting to get stuck with a student loan or co-signing on a loan.   because rent is so high Are you able to live with your parents?  Is there anyway to reduce the cost of rent like renting a room?  Can you move somewhere where the rent is cheaper? working 25 hours per week Working 25 hours per week and taking 6 hours is a pretty light schedule.  It is not even 40 hours per week.  What is stopping you from working 40 hours and paying for school from your salary?   In my own life I created a pretty crappy situation for myself when I was a young man.  I really wanted to go to a prestigious university, but ended up going to a community college, and then to a university that was lesser known in a less expensive area.  I had to work like crazy, upwards of 50 hours per week.  I also took a full load in a difficult degree program.   You probably don't have to go to the extremes that I went through, but you can work more.  Most adults work at their jobs well more than 40 hours per week, then come home and continue to work (on the house, raising kids, trying to start a side business, etc...).  So you might as well become an adult now. There are ways to become independent from your parents for FAFSA like have a baby, get married, or join the military.  I'd only recommend the last one as you will also receive the GI Bill.  Another option is to try and obtain a job that offers financial aid. My son is in a similar situation where he is 21 and in college. My wife and I claimed him as a dependant on our taxes last year. He had still been able to get some student loans as a dependant as well as scholarships. I have told him that we will not cosign on a loan for him. It isn't because we don't like our son, it is simply because too many unexpected things can happen.  He has been working multiple jobs which is one thing I would suggest as well as donating plasma for extra money to have a social life. As an electrical engineering major he doesn't have much time to be social. He cuts rent by having roommates and does most of his own cooking to help with food costs.  The main thing he does to keep his costs under control is attends a school that isn't outrageously expensive.  An expensive school does not offer as much benefit for an undergrad degree as it might for a graduate degree.  Another option is to look for a job that had some sort of tuition assistance.  Another option along that same line is look into military service either active duty or reserves as there is tuition help to be found there. There are options that don't involve debt. As a side note my son used a student loan last year however, this coming year he has his budget figured out and he will not be needing one at all. I was in a similar (but not quite as bad situation) a couple years ago, and I had a stroke of luck that helped me, but your friend might be able to force a similar situation. My parents refused to take out the huge parent loan (understandably so), but my dad made enough money that I wasn't eligible for much aid.  My stroke of luck came when they got divorced; I could refile my FAFSA with only one parent (using my mom with very little income), my aid shot through the roof and nearly covered my undergrad (this happened in California, I don't know if this works in other states). My advice for your friend would be to take the 6 units/part time job option, but do what she can to earn enough to pay her own rent/food/other bills.  I think the requirement for filing as an independent is that you supply >50% of your own income.  It won't kick in right away, but for next school year this would end up getting her a lot more money from the state/federal governments.  For me it was enough to cover my school, food, rent, gas, car payment, and still have a little left over. (I don't know if this is still possible, and I know it doesn't work for graduate school, or if it applies to every state.  It might be an option worth pursuing though) If the 6 credits per semester working part time schedule includes no loans, consider this.  Yes, it may take you twice as long to finish, BUT, you'll have a lot of working experience, AND zero student loans when you're done. Compare this to someone who graduates in four years and has 20k in student loans.  If they set up a 20 year repayment for the loans, they'll still have 16-18k left to pay and 4 years of job experience.   You'll have 8 years of half time job experience and zero debt.  The key would be to find a job in your area of interest.  More ideal would be one that pays for classes as a benefit.  Then you might increase your class load and decrease the total time to graduate, AND have relevant job experience when you graduate. I was in that same situation years ago with my parents. One way she could apply for a loan in her name without her parents is if she is not currently living with them she shouldn't need them to cosign if she doesn't have bad credit. But if she isn't living with them and they aren't financing her room and board they can't claim her as a dependent so if she really wants to stick it to them she can go and try to politely explain how the loans work and tell them if they don't cosign for her then she will apply on her own (which she can only do while not living with them I believe but not sure) and they will HAVE to STOP claiming her as a dependent on their taxes. If they don't agree she can put her foot down and force them to stop claiming her and tell them she will file her own application anyway and if they continue claiming her and get in trouble for it it's their own fault cause she warned them to stop first. They may agree to cosign rather than lose her as a dependent if it makes that big of a difference on their taxes, if they don't then she can forcefully punish them financially and their taxes will go up. Those were my choices when my parents refused to cosign for me to live at school but that was back in 1999-2000 and things may have changed since then, things also change state by state and I live in PA.
"I am not sure how anyone is answering this unless they know what the loan was for.  For instance if it is for a house you can put a lien on the house.  If it is for the car in most states you can take over ownership of it.   Point being is that you need to go after the asset.   If there is no asset you need to go after you ""friend"".  Again we need more specifics to determine the best course of action which could range from you suing and garnishing wages from your friend to going to small claims court.  Part of this process is also getting a hold of the lending institution.  By letting them know what is going on they may be able to help you - they are good at tracking people down for free. Also the lender may be able to give you options.  For example if it is for a car a bank may help you clear this out if you get the car back plus penalty.  If a car is not in the red on the loan and it is in good condition the bank turns a profit on the default.  If they can recover it for free they will be willing to work with you.  I worked in repo when younger and on more than a few occasions we had the cosigner helping.  It went down like this... Co-signer gets pissed like you and calls bank, bank works out a plan and tells cosigner to default, cosigner defaults, banks gives cosigner rights to repo vehicle, cosigner helps or actually repos vehicle, bank gets car back, bank inspects car, bank asks cosigner for X amount (sometimes nothing but not usually), cosigner pays X, bank does not hit cosigners credit, bank releases loan and sells car.  I am writing this like it is easy but it really requires that asset is still in good condition, that cosigner can get to the asset, and that the ""friend"" still is around and trusts cosigner.  I have seen more than a few cosigners promise to deliver and come up short and couple conspiring with the ""friend"".   I basically think most of the advice you have gotten so far is crap and you haven't provided enough info to give perfect advice.  Seeking a lawyer is a joke.  Going after a fleeing party could eat up 40-50 billable hours.  It isn't like you are suing a business or something.  The lawyer could cost as much as repaying the loan - and most lawyers will act like it is a snap of their fingers until they have bled you dry - just really unsound advice. For the most part I would suggest talking to the bank and defaulting but again need 100% of the details.   The other part is cosigning the loan.  Why the hell would you cosign a loan for a friend?  Most parents won't cosign a loan for their own kids.  And if you are cosigning a loan, you write up a simple contract and make the non-payment penalties extremely costly for your friend.  I have seen simple contracts that include 30% interests rates that were upheld by courts." Child care - will a parent stay home? Bring Child to daycare? Nanny? This can range from $4k+ to nearly $15K for daycare outside the house. For a nanny (of course, we found a gal with a masters degree in early childhood development) it can run to a full salary, $30K in her case.  The extra mouth to feed, the diapers, clothes, etc.  Education - Will you plan to pay for the child's college? Some people can't or feel they shouldn't. If you will, it can run about $180K in today's dollars for a private 4 year college.  Ours is now 12, so I'm sure my aging brain has forgotten some of the obvious expenses. I would say you are wrong. I think you're underestimating a good warehouse worker. There is a skill set involved, and many do not have it. Sadly, many people don't know any better than to arrive high, drunk, hung over, late, or not at all on a regular, for starters. Most warehouse workers don't just lift heavy things anymore. In fact, probably the majority never lift anything heavy at all. They run power equipment. Big, expensive, dangerous power equipment that does most of the lifting. Again, not everyone can handle that. One power equipment accident can end up costing the company tens of thousands of dollars.   Aside from that, the people performing those jobs are hardly the only employees present. Someone has to check in the trucks, audit the receivers, distribute the work of sorting, coreograph the loading and distribution of product out to the stores, maintain the computer systems, and a thousand other small tasks on a daily basis. I can assure you these positions require a whole lot more skills than the average loom worker in the 1800s was required.  Really, I find it scary how much you are devaluing these people. The fact most well-paying warehouses constantly go a few hands short is testiment to the fact good people are not actually a dime a dozen.  Edit a word.  Ninja Edit:  Another thing about this is that you seem to want to believe people had a choice in not developing whatever killer skillset it is you think makes you better than them. The reality is many very intelligent people cannot afford college. They don't have parents willing to give them a dime or a leg up, or their parents simply do not have the dime or the leg up to give them even if they wanted to. They're smart, but had to work during high school to support a portion of their own expenses, and that hurt their grades a bit. Or they were young, idiotic, and had little guidance because their parents were constantly away working their arses off for a pitance to survive on, so they goofed off in high school more than they ought resulting in an inability to qualify for scholarships. Suddenly, they're grown. They have to provide housing, food, and whatever for themselves, so they get crap jobs thinking they'll find a way to parlay that into skills or education when the reality is most employers just want to suck as much out of the employee for the least possible contribution. Any general manager of a large facility will tell you bragging rights on the golf course are to he who spends the least for the most work done. The majority of low skill low pay workers would gladly go back to college if only they could. Even if they can somehow scrape together the cash required - now over $8k a year for tuition, a crappy dorm and a food ticket at state colleges in my state, and books will run you $500 a semester for many majors - there is the issue of time. After working a grueling hopefully full-time job, they'd need to find it in them to stay awake during class and to complete assignments. On top of that, there is the question of timing. Especially in low skill jobs, it is usually required that the employee be available at company pleasure. Try finding a school in your area which has the classes you need times you can attend. Good luck with that. But wait! There are government subsidies! Yeah, good luck with that as well. If you've been working any half-decent job and apply, and are under 25 and your parents also make half-decent wages, you will be lucky to be offered loans. They aren't even low interest loans anymore. Also, god forbid your parents have a little emergency nest egg saved up from years of hard labor in the salt mines. Or - horrors - own a small, crappy, cookie-cutter, not-aging-well tract home free and clear. That'll cost you big in financial assistance from the goverment. "This does not seem, to me, to be a very good indication regarding the   risk of the person not paying their balances off. If you do not have a source of income then how are you going to repay your debt.  Not to mention there is recource for creditors to garnish wages.  That is not possible if you have no income.  The risk assessment is about the ability of the creditor to recover any moneys loaned and costs and still make a profit. For example, students have their parents pay them some pocket money to   cover for expenses, or a person might be working sporadically on   consulting gigs that do not have a fixed monthly or yearly component. Most credit card companies that are willing to issue to college students will allow you to include money from your parents in your income.  Credit card companies are looking for customers that will carry a balance and incur fees but be able to pay them.  These companies do not make money off of fees and interest that they do not collect.  As such, sporatic work increases risk. Is it possible for people to get approved for unsecured credit cards   if they don't hold (or have not held for some time) a job at the time   of application? I was able to while I was in college.  Though I did have a part time job.  If you can show that you have the ability to pay you can usually get a credit card if you do not have bad credit.  It will probably be high interest and have alot of fees some of them you will have to pay upfront.  But what you probably mean to ask is ""Is it possible to get a no cost unsecured credit card with out a reliable source of income?""  The answer to that is: probably not.  Even the ones that look like they are free probably have hidden fees." The only thing that is important here is the documentation you and your daughter signed. If that documentation states that you were a co-signer and that your daughter was the primary on the loan, and then if the loan is not being reported in your daughter's name, you have a cause for action. If, however, the documentation says the loan is entirely in your name, the mistake is yours. Even in that case, though, your daughter may be able to take over the loan, or she may be able to take out a loan from a separate institution and use that to pay off the current loan. Obviously, this may be difficult if she does not have a credit history, which is what got you here in the first place. :( Just to be clear, private *student* loans fall in the same category.  The only meaningful difference is that they do not qualify for the federal forgiveness program (described above) and usually don't have subsidized interest rates which generally makes them even worse.  They similarly follow you for life.  There is no way out.    If you're referring to *regular, private loans*, then that's kind of a non-sequitur since the topic is student loans.  Not trying to be pedantic, just want to make sure anyone hoping to learn more understands how horrible student loans are if you can't pay them back. Stay away from college debt. You can't default on it. Your wages will be garnished if you're unable to pay it back. Even when your and old man, they will garnish your social security money. In effect college debt makes you an indentured servant. Maybe even worse than the 7 years of servitude people served in early America. Lots of grads are working in restaurants and retail stores.... even some computer science grads. There is great risk in the college investment compared to 40 years ago when it was a sure thing. Do not take debt for college. If that means you can't go to college then so be it.  You're future self will than you. Are you in the United States? Is there some sort of written agreement that the money your parents paid into the house is a loan that will be paid back?  I assume the deed to the home is in your name, and your parents do not have a lien on the property in any way? In the United States provided there is no lien and your parents are not also on the mortgage, that home is 100% yours. Now I would argue you still owe your parents money, but absent some sort of contract it sounds like an interest free loan that you'll pay back at a rate of 500$/month.  Your parents could attempt to sue you and if this happens I recommend you find a real estate attorney. It's unlikely that they would win the case since there's no paperwork and even if there was it is unlikely to hold up since it so strongly favors them ( your parents ).  Now if your parents are listed on the mortgage or somehow have a lien on the house, you have a bigger issue as they technically own (or at least have an interest in) part of the property and when you decide to sell the house you would have to involve them.