Dad took out $65K in student loans for his daughter's college degree behind her back: 'I graduated in 2018 and had $30K in federal loans under my name. Am I now on the hook for this 90k?'

Author image for Emmy Pratt
Emmy Pratt • Writer and Editor
Oct 22, 2025 8:00 PM EDT

The question of who should pay for college looms large over many families. It's all too common for parents to be financially unable to save enough money for their kids to go to college, forcing them to either take out student loans or secure the best scholarship possible.

Some parents put the responsibility of paying for college solely on their kids, and that's certainly one way of doing it. Other parents decide to take out a parent-PLUS loan in their name, so that they can take on some of the cost that they wish they could've paid for up-front. PLUS loans tend to carry a higher interest rate than federal student loans taken out by students themselves, so parents are more likely to spend more if they take out such a loan for their kids. Nothing is worse for interest rates than taking out private loans, so if a parent or college student can avoid doing that, they'll be in a better position after the student graduates. If only college degrees weren't so expensive, maybe people wouldn't need to go into debt to pay for it.

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  • Woman wearing graduation cap and gown
    via Chichi Onyekanne

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • The woman in this story took out federal student loans for herself, but she didn't know that her dad also took out a Parent PLUS loan for $65K to pay for her college education. Now that he's passed away, she's unsure about whether she has to pay it off or not.

  • My dad took loans out for my college without telling me and then passed away, leaving me 90k I didn’t know about.

    Self explanatory title. My dad passed in late 2023 and my mom, who is unfortunately not financially literate and never handled any of their finances, just alerted me to a final notice sent in the mail to my dad for my student loans.
    via u/Better_Elk_4865
  • I graduated in 2018 and had some federal loans (30k) under my name that I've been paying off. My dad handled all of my school payments and I'm just now finding out it was through loans that he took out only in his name. 65k worth. Now with interest, over 90k.
    via u/Better_Elk_4865
  • A couple analyzing expenses with a pen, paper, and calculator
    via Getty Images (Unsplash+)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • My name isn't anywhere on the loan as a co-signer or anything and doesn't show up on any of my credit reports or anything right now, but he clearly took it out for my schooling because it shows the years I was in college and my university.
    via u/Better_Elk_4865
  • We are sending them his death certificate so he stops getting notices but am I now on the hook for this 90k? How does this work?
    via u/Better_Elk_4865
  • I dont want to sound ignorant or spoiled, I'm very conscious school costs a lot and many people are in student debt... I just didn't know I was that deep in? I thought my dad had paid for it outright. If I had known about them, I would've been paying them off over the last 7 years and made a lot of different decisions...
    via u/Better_Elk_4865
  • A fan of 100 US dollar bills
    via Alexander Mils

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • drink_from_the_hose Bottom line if your name isn't on the loan then you aren't responsible for paying.
    via u/drink_from_the_hose
  • Optimistiqueone And do not accept responsibility bc they may try to get OP to do that.
    via u/Optimistiqueone
  • TenderfootGungi They WILL try to convince you it is your responsibility.
    via u/TenderfootGungi
  • JonFrost Or take from the estate
    via u/JonFrost
  • ginger_and_egg well if it's in his name then yeah they can do that...
    via u/ginger_and_egg
  • emfrank But it can impact his mother's finances as she ages. OP should not just ignore.
    via u/emfrank
  • IEauFly4 It depends if there is even an estate to take from. In many cases when the first spouse dies, there's no estate because everything was jointly owned and/or listed the surviving spouse as beneficiary.
    via u/IEauFly4
  • lucky_ducker Are these Parent Plus loans? If so and they were in dad's name only, they will be discharged completely. Any other kind of loan - the lender can file a claim with dad's estate. Whether there's any money in his estate to repay the loan, depends on what assets he owned at death, and how they were titled. E.g. a house held in joint name with your mom passes to her, and the equity isn't part of the estate in most cases. Unless you (or mom) co-signed for these loans, neither of you is re
    via u/lucky_ducker
  • jasonwilczak This is exactly what we are doing for our kids. Putting it all on us, best case scenario we pay it off as planned. Worst case, I die and take the debt with me and they can live a better life. Seems like the only logical option if you aren't crazy rich.
    via u/jasonwilczak
  • stackedtotherafters That's what I did too. We were not in the position to save for college when she was a teenager, but can pay now. So parent plus worked out. I have made it VERY clear to both my daughter and husband that if something happens to me they are not to pay a cent towards the parent plus loans as they are in my name only.
    via u/stackedtotherafters
  • marsman57 Your dad didn't tell you because he wanted to protect you from having to deal with it. That's a good dad. I'm sorry for your loss.
    via u/marsman57
  • Ashkir Do not under any circumstances tell the loan company it was for YOUR college. It's your dad's loan if your name isn't on there. Send them the death certificate and don't pay it.
    via u/Ashkir
  • Consistent Photo5064 They will try to get you and your mom to pay, but don't. If they keep harassing seek a lawyer to officially notify them.
    via u/Consistent_Photo5064

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