You want to file for bankruptcy to wipe out your private student loan, but you’ve got a co borrower, and you don’t want to screw up their credit. Are you out of luck? Not necessarily, because filing for bankruptcy to discharge a student loan is often a game of chess rather than checkers. It’s true that if you file for bankruptcy and get a discharge of your student loan, any co borrower is still going to remain legally liable. But there are two reasons why this may not matter to you. No.1. There’s nothing that prevents you from voluntarily making payments after your case is over. Maybe you file for student loan discharge and you win the case. Now you can make payments without being legally required to do so, which means the debt doesn’t show up on your credit report anymore, so your debt to income ratio improves. You’ve reestablished your credit. After bankruptcy, it’s going to be easier to get a mortgage or car loan without that massive student loan on your credit. It’s also going to make it easier for you to refinance that student loan later on down the road. Number two, and this is a big deal when it comes to trying to discharge student loans in bankruptcies, is that in many cases that I’ve handled, the real reason to file that bankruptcy discharge case is to get somebody to the negotiating table to try to work out a deal that might not be Workable outside of bankruptcy. Look, if you’ve ever tried to work out a deal with your private student loan lender, you know how difficult it can be. Private student loan company isn’t required to do anything to reduce your payments or to lower your overall obligation. However, if you’re sitting in bankruptcy court with them and they’re confronting the same uncertainty of outcome that you are, remember you’re dealing with their lawyers instead of a customer for service agent. And that lawyer has a whole lot more negotiating power than somebody who’s just on the front lines of customer service. That happens, you’re probably going to get a better deal in bankruptcy. In fact, there are some private student loan companies that will do anything to avoid losing a bankruptcy discharge case because they know that news travels fast. And if they lose the case, and there are gonna be a lot more people who are gonna file them. If you’ve got any questions about your federal student loans, your private student loans, or any debt whatsoever, you know where to find me.