Subchapter I. General Provisions
50 U.S.C. § 3913: SCRA Protection for Co-Signers and Guarantors
Official heading: Protection of persons secondarily liable
In one line
Lets a court extend a servicemember’s stay or vacated judgment to co-signers, guarantors, endorsers, and co-makers on the same obligation, and blocks enforcement of a bail bond while service keeps the principal from appearing.
- A surety, guarantor, or co-maker can waive this only in a written instrument separate from the obligation
- The court may discharge the surety and exonerate bail when military service prevents the principal from attending
Text checked October 9, 2026
What § 3913 does to your money
If a parent co-signed your car loan or a spouse guaranteed your lease, a creditor stopped by the SCRA may turn to them. Section 3913 lets the court that stays enforcement against you grant the same stay, postponement or suspension to a surety, guarantor, endorser, accommodation maker or co-maker on the same obligation. When a judgment against you is vacated under the Act, the court may vacate it as to them as well.
The word is “may”. The relief is discretionary, so ask for it in the same motion that asks for your own stay or reopening, and name the co-signer. A co-signer can waive this protection, but only in a writing separate from the loan or lease itself. A waiver signed by someone who later enters military service, or by the dependent of someone who later does, stops being valid once that service begins, unless it was signed in the window between orders and reporting that § 3917 covers.
Subsection (c) covers bail bonds. A court may not enforce a bail bond while military service keeps the surety from producing the person, and it may discharge the surety and exonerate the bail during or after that service.
Guides on this site that apply § 3913
- SCRA Debt Relief: Stretch Pre-Service Debt by Your Time in Service
A court can spread pre-service debt over your time in service, with no penalties, under 50 U.S.C. § 4021. Calculator, plus collections and co-signers.
The full text of 50 U.S.C. § 3913
From the United States Code, 2024 Edition, current through January 6, 2025, as published by the U.S. Government Publishing Office on GovInfo (retrieved October 10, 2026). No amendment enacted after the edition cutoff was found on Cornell LII or in GovInfo’s compiled SCRA (amended through Pub. L. 118-159, Dec. 23, 2024). House style: the Code’s em dashes before a list are shown as colons, and en dashes as hyphens or “to”; no word of the text is changed.
(a) Extension of protection when actions stayed, postponed, or suspended
Whenever pursuant to this chapter a court stays, postpones, or suspends (1) the enforcement of an obligation or liability, (2) the prosecution of a suit or proceeding, (3) the entry or enforcement of an order, writ, judgment, or decree, or (4) the performance of any other act, the court may likewise grant such a stay, postponement, or suspension to a surety, guarantor, endorser, accommodation maker, comaker, or other person who is or may be primarily or secondarily subject to the obligation or liability the performance or enforcement of which is stayed, postponed, or suspended.
(b) Vacation or set-aside of judgments
When a judgment or decree is vacated or set aside, in whole or in part, pursuant to this chapter, the court may also set aside or vacate, as the case may be, the judgment or decree as to a surety, guarantor, endorser, accommodation maker, comaker, or other person who is or may be primarily or secondarily liable on the contract or liability for the enforcement of the judgment or decree.
(c) Bail bond not to be enforced during period of military service
A court may not enforce a bail bond during the period of military service of the principal on the bond when military service prevents the surety from obtaining the attendance of the principal. The court may discharge the surety and exonerate the bail, in accordance with principles of equity and justice, during or after the period of military service of the principal.
(d) Waiver of rights
(1) Waivers not precluded
This chapter does not prevent a waiver in writing by a surety, guarantor, endorser, accommodation maker, comaker, or other person (whether primarily or secondarily liable on an obligation or liability) of the protections provided under subsections (a) and (b). Any such waiver is effective only if it is executed as an instrument separate from the obligation or liability with respect to which it applies.
(2) Waiver invalidated upon entrance to military service
If a waiver under paragraph (1) is executed by an individual who after the execution of the waiver enters military service, or by a dependent of an individual who after the execution of the waiver enters military service, the waiver is not valid after the beginning of the period of such military service unless the waiver was executed by such individual or dependent during the period specified in section 3917 of this title.
Enacted and amended by: (Oct. 17, 1940, ch. 888, title I, §103, as added Pub. L. 108-189, §1, Dec. 19, 2003, 117 Stat. 2838.)
Effective date: Section applicable to any case not final before Dec. 19, 2003, see section 3 of Pub. L. 108-189, set out as a note under section 3901 of this title.
Every section of the Act, including the short administrative ones without their own page, is on the section-by-section index.
Heads up: SCRA Saver publishes general information, not legal or financial advice. Laws change and every situation differs. Confirm details with your installation legal assistance office (free for service members) or a licensed professional.