Last Updated: November 17, 2025
When you cosign a private student loan, you’re taking equal responsibility with the student to pay back the loan. The loan will appear on both of your credit reports, so timely payments will positively affect both the student borrower’s and cosigner’s credit score.
You may decide that you’d rather take full responsibility for at least a portion of the loans for school. In this case a parent loan may make sense for you. You can read more about cosigning vs. taking a parent loan here: https://www.collegeave.com/articles/cosigning-loan-vs-taking-parent-loan/