I cosigned for my brother's car. He stopped making payments on it.

I had bad experience with co-signing. Ex-fiance, broke up, hence the ex. Abusive situation. Actually had to go to court because he tried suing me (abusive power play by him). I won. I even had court papers saying I wasn't responsible for the car or payments.

I moved out, called auto company and gave them my new address and phone number. This was 15 years ago, before cell phones were everywhere, mind you. I faxed over the court papers to them.

Asked that if a payment was late or missed, to please notify me immediately.

Nothing.

My old neighbor calls me and tells me she thinks the car got repo'd. WHAT!?!

I call ASAP. Yep, repo'd the day before. I ask if I can bring it up to date, etc...

No, sorry...its been already auctioned. What? In one day? Seriously?? This is Ford's, mind you.

The guy is nice, he says that since my ex works at Ford, don't worry, they'll be going after him for the payments, etc... I'm just a clerk at a trucking company.

A year later, guess what? My check gets garnished for the car payments. I immediately filed bankruptcy. Screw that. Apparently, the court papers mean nothing because this was a separate contract.

I wasn't paying $16g for something I tried to remedy from day one.

In my opinion, you'll be better off making payments yourself and getting the money from your brother.

/r/personalfinance Thread