<prompt> Human: My wife is over 5k in debt with one credit card, because she went overboard in her early twenties. She has been paying it down regularly for the past couple years, but its not making a significant difference. Were having a child at the end of this year and received some cash from a few relatives to the tune of a little over 2.5k... We tried to negotiate a pay off the whole loan with one lump sum of 3k, but they said NO, and the only way to negotiate was to let the bill go to collections... Were trying to build up our credit score up, and scared that it will hurt us to go to collections. Any suggestions on how to proceed?  <response>: Have you looked into opening a new card and doing a balance transfer? You might be able to get a 0 for a year or so. This will only temporary ding her credit and save you money.Dont fill up the now empty credit card again! 