<prompt> Human: Background: before she met me my wife was in the Peace Corps. She met fell for a guy in her assigned West African country. They came to the US with plans to marry. She co-signed for some loans so he could obtain a degree.Fast forward a bit, they break up, he isnt able to remain in the country. I meet her, we court, yadda yadda yadda, now we have a family. Only shes on the hook for what I think is probably 12k.Shes been paying the minimums for a long time. These loans are something like 10 years old. Id like to get the hell out from under this debt. Preferably without paying it off we could probably come close to doing it out of our savings but it would wipe those accounts out and leave us with no safety or emergency funds. Do we have any options or anywhere we can go for help?Secondary issue: Recently, the loan servicing company tried to get an update on everyones information, failed bc ex is back in Africa, and stopped processing automatic payments. They threatened to put my wife into delinquent status and refused to take her information as primary on the loan. So, she told them that he lives with us. Her thinking was, if it happens again she wants them to contact her rather than just stop processing payments.Im worried that someone else may be looking for the guy who knows what other debts he left and now well suffer some consequences from that. Also, if theres any way to tell the loan company to go after him instead, now well have to convince them that hes in African and not in the USA.Thanks for reading.Assistant: I think youre looking at this wrong and would be a lot more accepting of the situation if you changed your perspective.What happened is that your wife took out a loan to help her immigrant boyfriend, who she was planning to marry, get a degree. That was an admirable and logical thing for her to do. She was planning for the future.But then the future changed and they broke up instead of getting married. But that doesnt mean that she doesnt have to pay back the loan she took out.The situation is really no different than if they actually were married, took out a loan, and she ended up with the debt in the divorce settlement.Human: I mean, sure. But if theres a way we could not have to pay this off, thatd be better.Im not denying what she did. But arent there loan forgiveness programs all over the place? Could we maybe negotiate the amount down somehow?Im asking because I really dont know. I understand the whole take responsibilitypay your debts mentality and for the most part I agree with it. What chafes is this guy getting a free degree while my family is still working to pay for it.Assistant: I may have made an incorrect assumption, but I was assuming this is a federally guaranteed student loan. If so, there is nothing you can do. It isnt legally bankruptable except in extremely rare cases, and the lender has zero incentive to accept a lower settlement amount from you because theyre 100 guaranteed by the government.Human: Wow, that sucks.I dont know if its a federally guaranteed loan or not, I know basically what I put in the OP. But wow, that really sucks. They really get you no matter what, dont they?  <response>: If by get you you mean that they expect you to pay back the money you borrowed, then yeah, they get you. This is why you never co-sign a loan you do not have full intentions of paying yourself. That goes for parents, siblings, children, and SOs to whom you are not married. 