<prompt> Human: So, last night I found out my soon to be fiance was in debt at around 20k. I thought well I guess thats not too terrible so I asked well youre at least paying the minimum right? to me thats better than nothing at all She says no, I was expecting some kind of joke about how she is paying more than that. I was wrong. She says she hasnt payed any of it. I freak out a bit because Ive always been taught that you should always pay what you can even if it isnt the monthly payments. Ive never been in debt more than my 17k car loan so Im far from experienced. Her lawyer cousin said you will never pay it off just leave it and dont pay. Needless to say I was freaking out about this whole thing. I dont have a clue where I would even start looking for information on this, so I did what any redditor would do and came to ask my fellow redditors for help. More info on it. She has gotten letters from collection agencies. Shes not sure how much it is exactly but said it cant be more than 20k. Its been about 5-6ish years. We live in California. Hopefully I can at least get some advice on where to start looking. Thanks in advance. Edit Ill want to start off by saying thank you to everyone who answered my questions. Id also like to point out that I should have given this a better title due to all of the personal judgments that if I had wanted I would have posted in rrelationships  <response>: A Lannister always pays his debts 