<prompt> Human: As in the title, my friend is 21 and has over 15K in debt from a number of store credit cards, and a 7K student loan from the government, and shes about 5 months behind on all the payments. Shes making about 1400 a month from her one job and lives in Los Angeles. Shes been talking about credit consolidation, and has been asking for my advice. What are her options? Assistant: She needs to stop the shopping first and foremost. Other than that, its hard to give advice without knowing her housing situation. Assuming that her CC debt is at 20 interest could be more or less, this means 250month -- nearly 20 of her income -- is going to just interest. At 16,800year income I highly doubt she will qualify for any loans. Hence the goal needs to be to improve income too.Human: Shes currently living at home with parents, paying them 500 a month for rent and other bills. Other than that she says she hasnt been paying any of the debts because theyre so high.  <response>: By not paying any of your debts, they will just get higher. 