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