You are responsible for the debt. If the primary borrower does not pay the debt as agreed, for any reason, the creditor will hold you responsible. You should not assume that the lender will purse collecting from the primary borrower. In most cases, collectors will seek payment from the person who offers the best chance of recovering the money. If you do not pay, you could be sued.

Your credit report may suffer. Any late payments made by the primary borrower will appear on your credit report. This is true even if you were unaware that late payments were being made. In addition, the cosigned loan could change your debt-to-income ratio, making it harder to qualify for future credit.

Cosigning does not equal ownership. It is a common misperception that cosigning a secured loan entitles you to ownership. However, if you cosign a loan for a vehicle and your name is not on the title, you are not entitled to its ownership. This is true even if you are the one making payments.

There is no easy way out. There is no simple way to “remove” yourself from a cosigned loan. In order for the primary borrower to assume total responsibly for the debt, they would have to apply for a new loan and qualify on their own.

Cosigning may not be helpful in the long-run. Most likely, you are being asked to cosign because the primary borrower is unable to qualify for the loan on their own. This may be because they are taking on more debt than they can realistically afford. Therefore, it may make more sense for the primary borrower to wait until they can qualify on their own. In addition, combining friendship or family with money issues always carries risk.