A co-signed account refers to any account that has financial responsibility attached to it where one person or entity takes on the financial responsibility of another person or entity. In other words, a co-signed account contains a person or entity who is promising to pay off the debt of another person or entity.
A co-signed account is usually necessary when the original signer has low or no credit history. For example, if a person has a history of not paying off his or her debt, then a car dealership may not sell a car to this person unless he or she has another person co-sign for the car that has good credit history. Also, an apartment complex may require a person just out of school to have a co-signer for their apartment because they currently have little or no credit history.