Dear Annie: I’m writing to respond to the post about “Godmother Goes Awry,” in which a mother was very upset that a godmother would not co-sign for her daughter. The daughter was requesting a co-signer to rent an apartment. The mother was enraged that the godmother declined.
I just wanted to say that I, in the past, have been a co-signer for young people’s loans. This has caused me to lose over $20,000 when they lost their job or just declined to repay the loans. I now have a policy of never co-signing for any children of mine or other people. It is a bad situation and one should never mix money and family. If you were willing to completely lose the money and financially able, perhaps then it is fine. But one can never be sure that someone’s going to pay them back — and then the relationship gets ruined. So I support the godmother in this case and I think the mother should back off.
