Don’t Want a Co-signer? The 4 Top Alternatives (2024)

At certain points in your life, especially if you’re just starting out, you may need a co-signer for a loan or other financial transaction. But what if you don’t know anyone who is willing or able to co-sign? Or what if you don’t want to strain your relationship with a friend or relative by asking them to do it? What are your alternatives?

When Could You Need a Co-Signer?

Suppose you want a car loan so you can drive to work. Public transportation where you live is poor; relying on it severely limits where you can work, compromises your safety, or takes up way too much of your free time. You’re convinced that you can make the loan payments, but you don’t have quite enough income to qualify.

Perhaps you have just graduated from college and are trying to get your first apartment. You’re no longer eligible for student housing, but you don’t yet have a job and can’t convince any landlord to take a chance on you despite your solid grade point average.

Or maybe you’re trying to get back on your feet after unemployment or health problems depleted your savings and led to you defaulting on loans, damaging your credit history and making it impossible to get a new loan or a place to live.

Four Alternatives to Having a Co-Signer

Fortunately, even if finding a co-signer would be difficult or impossible, you still have options. Here are four of them.

1. Become a Subtenant or Roommate

If you’re after an apartment, then you can try finding a situation where someone else already is fully obligated to pay the lease but is looking for help with the rent. You might be able to sublease from someone who is traveling or had to move unexpectedly and couldn’t get out of their rental agreement. You also might be able to rent a room from someone who will occupy the apartment with you but doesn’t need to add your name to the lease.

In these cases, since the landlord already has a signed agreement from someone who has passed a credit check, paid a security deposit, and promised to pay the rent for the full lease term, they may not check your credit or even care who occupies the place as long as they’re receiving rent checks on time each month from the original renter.

Ask the individual you want to sublet from or room with for a copy of the lease, to make sure you won’t be violating it. The person on the lease should get written permission from the landlord before you move in, and you should sign a sublease or roommate agreement with the tenant. Be aware of the possibility that if you’re paying the person on the lease rather than paying the landlord, they could conceivably take your money and not remit it to the landlord.

2. Use a Co-Signer Service

To secure an apartment, you could also hire a co-signer service. For a fee, they will guarantee to your landlord that they will pay your rent if you do not. You must apply for approval with a co-signer service, and there is often an application fee. If you’re approved, then the service will give you a co-signing certificate to submit with your rental application. It’s up to the landlord whether to accept your co-signer.

If the landlord approves, then you’ll have to pay the co-signing service a fee, calculated as a percentage of your rent, even if they never have to pay your rent for you.If the service does have to pay any rent on your behalf, then you will be obligated to reimburse them.

One company that offers this service is Insurent. It charges a one-time, nonrefundable flat fee based on a percentage of your rent after your apartment application is approved.

Note that if you can’t find a landlord willing to accept a co-signer service’s guarantee, then you might be able to secure an apartment by paying a larger security deposit or prepaying the rent.

3. Try a Peer-to-Peer Lender

If you want to borrow money and conventional lenders have rejected you, then peer-to-peer lending might be an option. The two most prominent companies in this area are Prosper and Lending Club. Both companies will check your credit score when you apply, but they do not require borrowers to have perfect credit, and you can use the borrowed money for a variety of purposes. The worse your credit score, the higher your interest rate will be, and you might not get approved. However, it could be worth applying to find out.

Prosper has a “recommended minimum credit score” of 640. Lending Club does not list a minimum credit score requirement on its website, but other sources have reported that the minimum is 660.

4. Establish or Rebuild Your Credit History

Lenders require co-signers when a borrower has no credit or damaged credit. In either situation, you can create or re-establish a favorable credit profile by applying for a secured credit card that will report your activity to Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, the three major credit bureaus. All you need to do is make one small purchase a month on the card and pay it off before the payment due date.

If your problem is that you have no credit, then within about six months of beginning to use your secured credit card, borrowing only a little, and paying it promptly, you’ll meet two of the most important criteria for having a strong credit score: a low credit utilization ratio, and a history of paying on time. At this point, you might qualify for a loan or an apartment without a co-signer, assuming you earn enough income.

If you’re repairing damaged credit, then you may have to wait longer, because negative items remain in your file for years. Lenders need to be convinced by your credit score that your new, positive repayment history isn’t just a short-term change.

Should You Wait to Borrow Instead?

If you are rejected and can’t get financing without your parent's help, it could signal that borrowing may not be your best decision currently. Lenders and landlords want someone else to guarantee payment because they aren’t sure that you’re good for the money. It’s possible that their concerns are justified.

Having your loan or apartment application rejected can be a blessing in disguise when you can’t really afford it. Stretching to take on another financial obligation adds more stress to your situation. It can drag someone else into your problems by asking them to co-sign, potentially damaging an important relationship. Look for alternatives that you can afford on your own. They might be less than ideal, but when your situation improves, you can reapply for another loan or apartment.

The Bottom Line

It’s frustrating for sure to not be able to live where you want or buy something that you think you need, and most of us have been in this situation at some point. But lenders and landlords make their decisions based on objective financial considerations, and you shouldn’ttake their rejection personally.

If you can’t get or don’t want a co-signer, then remember that you have options. They just require some patience and outside-the-box thinking.