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Oh good grief, you just made that up. A co-signer is for when the borrower defaults on the loan FOR ANY REASON. No note ever said the co-signer is off the hook if the borrower dies. This is not “hounding” money from someone who died–it’s asking for repayment from a living person who agreed to be responsible for the debt. Without that assurance, the loan would never have been made. Why shouldn’t the bank get the benefit of the contract it made?</p>
<p>If you want a lender to walk away from a loan because something bad happened to your family, if you want “compassion”, borrow from your grandmother, not a bank. </p>
<p>I’d like to know how far those arguing for “compassion” would take things. Suppose the student has a fatal disease? Should the co-signer be off the hook? How about just a serious disease that makes the student leave school? What if the student becomes addicted to drugs and the family decides to pay for an expensive rehab facility? How about a serious depression that is resistant to all therapies? What if Johnnie is flunking all his pre-med course and decides his heart’s desire is to travel world on a bike for ten years? Should his heartbroken family be excused from repaying his loan on the basis of “compassion”?</p>