Your Rights and Responsibilities: Loans

Joint borrower disclosure

All joint borrowers are entitled to receive disclosure information from the financial institutions that are under federal regulation, such as banks and insurance and trust and loan companies. This includes information about the costs of borrowing involved with the loan. When a financial institution agrees to provide a loan to you and one or more other people, known as joint borrowers, all of you should receive disclosure information that outlines the interest and other costs you will have to pay. You have a right to receive the same statements that the other borrowers receive on an ongoing basis. If you are a joint borrower on a credit card, for example, you should also receive a monthly statement about the account. From these documents, you can learn about the current status of the loan — whether the other borrower is making payments, or if the terms and conditions have changed.

You can waive the right to separate disclosure in two ways:

• all joint borrowers consent verbally or in writing to allow only one borrower to receive disclosure documents
  
  
• two or more joint borrowers consent verbally or in writing to allow another borrower to receive disclosure documents instead of them — but those who did not agree continue to get disclosure documents.

When one or more joint borrowers give verbal consent to the bank or trust and loan or insurance company about a change in getting disclosure documents, the financial institution must provide confirmation in writing to the joint borrowers.