Debt Consolidation for Family Member

Consolidation

I’m personally in good financial health but a family member of mine is in it neck deep and has been unemployed for some time.

Car got repossessed and they are a total of ~10k on the hole in assorted loans to the bank who repossessed the car, a little over half of that would need to be repaid up front to get the car back. To clarify they are using the car repossession as leverage to get her to catch up on other loans.

Which leads me to my questions

  1. how should I best approach my credit union with help consolidating debt that’s not mine? Is more detail about the exact numbers and situations going to improve my odds with getting them to help, as I’m doing here, or will it only serve to make the credit union wary to help?

  2. Is my approach of trying to consolidate all of the debt vs. just what the family members bank is asking to return the car, worth the trouble?

Either way this would require me to get a loan, to consolidate this. I understand that I might get screwed on interest but I need one smaller payment vs. several

My thought process is that I’m not comfortable taking out a loan for a partial balance and having the family member fall behind again while trying to work through issues with personal and mental health. They are trying to make things better,

I believe this was the wake up call they needed, just getting it all out in the open as opposed to hiding things because they are uncomfortable.

Debt details:

  1. Car Loan, ~5k remaining. Min 250/mo
  2. Personal loan, ~4k remaining. Min 250/mo
  3. Credit card, 1k ~remaining. Min 25/mo

Payoff to “catch up”: ~5k
Total debt: ~10k

Posted May 6, 2026, 11:27 PM UTC

79
Loading comments…