<prompt> Human: tldr: Girlfriend has a lot of defaulted debt and her credit score is 396, help please. First and foremost, this was not a clickbait title. I am in the process of setting up a budget with my girlfriend to get our finances in order. She had previously mentioned that her credit score was bad so many things that we have done that required a credit check was done through me. Today she pulled her credit score from Credit Karma and TransUnion showed she had a credit score of 396. In her report she had the following things: - Closed CC for 991 - Closed Student Loan for 4,280 - 3 Open Collections Accounts with a total sum of 1,782 - Several Nelnet open accounts that amounted to 15,907 This one I plan to contact for clarification as the report was confusingI am budgeting to aggressively handle both hers and my outstanding debt. I make 60k before taxes and she just landed a job that pays 19 an hour and works on average 45-50 hour weeks. My question is simply, is there hope? If we payed off her outstanding debt would her credit score go back up to a normal range or would we need to contact the collection agencies and work some magic? I am out of my league with this stuff and she is panicking thinking it will never get better. EDIT: Thank you all for your tips and advice! I learned quite a bit from a lot of you guys. Also Id like to keep this discussion purely on ideas on how to improve poor credit, if I wanted relationship advice Id put this in a different subreddit. : EDIT 2: Holy cow! I wasnt expecting this to get so much attention. I really appreciate all the helpful advice and answers given so far. To give an update I sat down with my girlfriend this morning to have a serious discussion on how to proceed with her debt. After the holiday she is going to contact the necessary offices to get a real total on her debts with student loans as well as her closed credit card. Aside from that I also took the suggestion of fjsueytr765 and told her Id help out with a lot of her portion of the living expenses if she planned a budget to get her debts paid. The result budget basically sums up to 800 a month going to this effort. Once again thank you all so much for your advice! Really put my mind at ease and for that matter hers as well. Assistant: First dont pay any of her debt until shes your wife, it will cause issues.. and then you break up, and youre out 20k.Second she needs to get a secured credit card and actually pay it, once shes paid off her other debt.Human: For the record I do plan on proposing to her. I should have included that in my post. Also with a 396 credit score can she even get a secured credit card? I was afraid shed just get denied if she even asked. Assistant: A secured credit card you put a deposit down for the amount youre allowed to spend, so say 200, if you bail on the 200 debt, they have your 200. And people get engaged and break up.Human: Youre very correct, and I will talk with her about this. Do the secure credit cards help with raising her credit score?  <response>: yes, they report to credit agencies just like regular CCs 