My f…. stupid 21-year-old son racked up $15K in credit card debt. Now the wife and I are arguing over it. What to do?
He basically got a normally low limit credit card, but he took cash advance from his credit and did not pay or he paid a minimum. Now the card has gone up to almost $15k.
My wife just wants us to pay it off. I said NO WAY, he’s an idiot that needs to learn his lesson, even if it’s going to cost him $50K over the next however many years.
What would you do?
Another thing I thought of was loaning him the $15K with 20% interest on it and minimum payments.
That way he’s still learning his lesson about why building 4 computers when you don’t have a job is a bad idea, but it won’t destroy his credit score.
I’m not sure if that’d be a big enough wake-up call though.
Here are what netizens think:
- Whether you decide to pay it back or not, there’s no way he’s keeping the 4 computers. Selling them would be a good way to start.
- My parents loaned me money to help buy a house. We’ve drawn up contract, I’ve set up a direct debit. All official. That’s the way to do it. Either do it properly or don’t bother.
- I’m a full-time engineer and my credit limit is $2000 on my card. I’ve never asked for an increase because I don’t need that sort of credit.
- Here’s what I would do
- Make him sell the computers, any other big item he doesn’t need.
- Pay off the rest of the debt as a loan to him.
- Make him get a job
- Impose certain restrictions while that loan is in place – no CC until it’s paid off, no new computers etc.
- Sit down with him and try to work out how the fuck it happened and talk to him like an adult who made a mistake, since that’s what he is, while also trying to see if I was personally responsible for