Can my spouse be the primary signer on my car's loan?
Go to your local bank or credit union before talking to a dealership. Ask them if putting both names on the loan makes a difference regarding rates and maximum loan you qualify for. Ask them to run the loan application both ways. Having both names on the loan helps build the credit of the spouse that has a lower score.    You may find that both incomes are needed for a car loan if the couple has a mortgage or other joint obligations. The lender will treat the entire mortgage payment or rent payment as a liability against the person applying for the loan, they won't split the housing payment in half if only one name will be on the car loan. Therefore sometimes the 2nd persons income is needed even if their credit is not as good. That additional income without a significant increase in liabilities can make a huge difference regarding the loan they can qualify for. Once the car is in your possession, it doesn't matter who drives it. In general the insurance company will put both spouses as authorized drivers. Note: it is almost always better to ask your bank or credit union about a car loan before going to the dealership. That gives you a solid data point regarding a loan, and removes a major complexity to the negotiations at the dealership. "If your spouse wishes to buy a car and finance it with a car loan, they are free to do so. Once they have bought a car, they are free to let you use it. However, if you are the owner of the car, the loan is going to have to be in your name. Your spouse can't get a loan backed by an asset they don't own. They could get a personal loan and then give the money to you, but the interest rates would likely be rather high. Also, even if you aren't on any of the paperwork, you being married likely will affect the situation. It will depend on what state you're in. If you want to go that route, one of the best ways to find out is to simply have your spouse ask the people that would be providing the loan ""Can I finance this separate from my spouse, or will they be included in the credit evaluation?"""
"You promised to pay the loan if he didn't.  That was a commitment, and I recommend ""owning"" your choice and following it through to its conclusion, even if you never do that again.  TLDR: You made a mistake: own it, keep your word, and embrace the lesson.  Why?  Because you keep your promises.  (Nevermind that this is a rare time where your answer will be directly recorded, in your credit report.) This isn't moralism. I see this as a ""defining moment"" in a long game: 10 years down the road I'd like you to be wise, confident and unafraid in financial matters, with a healthy (if distant) relationship with our somewhat corrupt financial system.  I know austerity stinks, but having a strong financial life will bring you a lot more money in the long run. Many are leaping to the conclusions that this is an ""EX-friend"" who did this deliberately.  Don't assume this. For instance, it's quite possible your friend sold the (car?) at a dealer, who failed to pay off this note, or did and the lender botched the paperwork.  And when the collector called, he told them that, thinking the collector would fix it, which they don't do. The point is, you don't know: your friend may be an innocent party here.  Creditors generally don't report late payments to the credit bureaus until they're 30 days late.  But as a co-signer, you're in a bad spot: you're liable for the payments, but they don't send you a bill.  So when you hear about it, it's already nearly 30 days late.  You don't get any extra grace period as a co-signer. So you need to make a payment right away to keep that from going 30 late, or if it's already 30 late, to keep it from going any later.   If it is later determined that it was not necessary for you to make those payments, the lender should give them back to you.  A less reputable lender may resist, and you may have to threaten small claims court, which is a great expense to them. Cheaper to pay you.  They say France is the nation of love. They say America is the nation of commerce.  So it's not surprising that here, people are quick to burn a lasting friendship over a temporary financial issue.  Just saying, that isn't necessarily the right answer.  I don't know about you, but my friends all have warts.  Nobody's perfect.  Financial issues are just another kind of wart.  And financial life in America is hard, because we let commerce run amok.  And because our obsession with it makes it a ""loaded"" issue and thus hard to talk about.  Perhaps your friend is in trouble but the actual villain is a predatory lender.  Point is, the friendship may be more important than this temporary adversity.  The right answer may be to come together and figure out how to make it work.  Yes, it's also possible he's a human leech who hops from person to person, charming them into cosigning for him. But to assume that right out of the gate is a bit silly.  The first question I'd ask is ""where's the car?"" (If it's a car). Many lenders, especially those who loan to poor credit risks, put trackers in the car.  They can tell you where it is, or at least, where it was last seen when the tracker stopped working.  If that is a car dealer's lot, for instance, that would be very informative.   Simply reaching out to the lender may get things moving, if there's just a paperwork issue behind this.  Many people deal with life troubles by fleeing: they dread picking up the phone, they fearfully throw summons in the trash.  This is a terrifying and miserable way to deal with such a situation.  They learn nothing, and it's pure suffering.   I prefer and recommend the opposite: turn into it, deal with it head-on, get ahead of it.   Ask questions, google things, read, become an expert on the thing. Be the one calling the lender, not the other way round.  This way it becomes a technical learning experience that's interesting and fun for you, and the lender is dreading your calls instead of the other way 'round.  I've been sued.  It sucked.  But I took it on boldly, and and actually led the fight and strategy (albeit with counsel).  And turned it around so he wound up paying my legal bills.  HA!  With that precious experience, I know exactly what to do... I don't fear being sued, or if absolutely necessary, suing.   You might as well get the best financial education.  You're paying the tuition!" "It is my opinion that part of having a successful long-term relationship is being committed to the other person's success and well-being. This commitment is a form of investment in and of itself. The returns are typically non-monetary, so it's important to understand what money actually is. Money is a token people exchange for favors. If I go to a deli and ask for a sandwich. I give them tokens for the favor of having received a sandwich. The people at the deli then exchange those tokens for other favors, and that's the entire economy: people doing favors for other people in exchange for tokens that represent more favors. Sometimes being invested in your spouse is giving them a back rub when they've had a hard day. The investment pays off when you have a hard day and they give you a back rub. Sometimes being invested in your spouse is taking them to a masseuse for a professional massage. The investment pays off when they get two tickets to that thing you love. At the small scale it's easy to mostly ignore minor monetary discrepancies. At the large scale (which I think £50k is plenty large enough given your listed net worth) it becomes harder to tell if the opportunity cost will be worth making that investment. It pretty much comes down to: Will the quality-of-life improvements from that investment be better than the quality-of-life improvements you receive from investing that money elsewhere? As far as answering your actual question of: How should I proceed? There isn't a one-size fits all answer to this. It comes down to decisions you have to make, such as: * in theory it's easy to say that everyone should be able to trust their spouse, but in practice there are a lot of people who are very bad at handling money. It can be worthwhile in some instances to keep your spouse at an arms length from your finances for their own good, such as if your spouse has a gambling addiction. With all of that said, it sounds like you're living in a £1.5m house rent-free. How much of an opportunity cost is that to your wife? Has she been freely investing in your well-being with no explicit expectation of being repaid? This can be your chance to provide a return on her investment. If it were me, I'd make the investment in my spouse, and consider it ""rent"" while enjoying the improvements to my quality of life that come with it." As per Chad's request, I recommend that you keep at least one card in each name  as primary card holder, with the spouse being the secondary  card holder, most easily done by each adding the spouse as the secondary holder to his/her own card. Since credit reporting is usually in the name of the primary credit card holder, this allows both to continue to have credit history, important when the marriage ends (in death or divorce as the case may be). When you travel, each should carry only the  cards on which he/she is the primary card holder; not all  cards. This helps in case of a wallet or purse being stolen;  you have to report only one set of cards as lost and request  their replacement, and you have a set of cards that you can  use in the mean time (as long as you are not in different  places when the loss occurs). First of all, congratulations on paying off $40k in debt in one year. Mathematically, you'd be better off making the standard car loan payments and putting your extra money toward the student loan. However, there are a few other things that you might want to consider. Over the last year, you've knocked out a whole bunch of different debts.  Feels pretty good, doesn't it?  At your current rate, you could knock out your new car loan in 6 months.  Then you'd only have one debt left.  If it sounds to you like it would be nice to only have one debt left, then it might be worth the mathematical disadvantage you would get by paying off the car early instead of putting the money toward the last student loan. The car loan is 0%, but if you are late on a single payment, they will take that opportunity to raise your interest rate to something probably higher than the interest rate of your student loan.  For this reason, you may decide it is not worth the hassle, and you'd rather just eliminate the car loan as quickly as possible. Either choice is fine, in my opinion, as long as you have a purpose behind the choice and you are committed to eliminating both debts as quickly as possible. As an aside, it is important to remember that even a 0% loan is not really free money, and needs to be paid back.  You know this, of course, but sometimes you see a 0% loan advertized and it feels like free money.  It's not.  You have probably already paid for the loan by forfeiting a rebate.  So although, at this point having already taken this loan and paying for it, you will come out ahead by dragging out your car loan for the full term, in the future do not think that you can make money by buying something at 0% interest. You can simply deposit the check into your joint account. You should be able do that even without his signature. Then you can transfer the money out of that account and into yours. "Aside of ""don't lend money to friends"" a good idea is to have a written contract that states the sum, the due date, the interest (if any). Having the loan on paper makes it more real and harder to ""forget"". The third party is not necessary - anyone can have a bank loan for more than $10K by signing a contract with a bank without any third party." "Your auto insurance should cover you driving any car, as well as anyone driving your car (on a temporary basis). In an accident, I suspect her insurance would be the primary insurer. Since she has her own car and insurance and only temporarily drives yours, I wouldn't include her as a ""driver""." I would like to add one minor point for clarity: Cosigning means that you, alongside your friend, enter into a contract with the bank. It does not necessarily mean that you now have a contract with your friend, although that could implicitly be concluded. If the bank makes use of their contracted right to make you pay your friend's debts with them, this has no effect on your legal relationship with your friend. Of course, you can hold him or her liable for your damages he or she has caused. It is another question whether this would help you in practice, but that has been discussed before.