<prompt> Human: Me and my wifes credit scores are not very good, I am at 569 and she was at 469. When in college she opened up a ton of department store credit cards and built up her credit. But now, since we have moved into a new, more expensive apartment, and we just had a son, our expenses have gone up and and her credit care payments were eating away at our money every month. So we decided together to stop paying on her department store credit cards and to only keep paying on her essential cards Discover, Capitol One, etc, in order to have more money available each month to make ends meet, start a savings, and to build up my credit, since I am the primary breadwinner make 60K.The idea is to have the debts disappear after 7 years and to build back up her credit when I am further along in my career and making substantially more money.Is this a smart strategy or is there another way? I guess the reason I ask is I feel bad for her credit going in the toilet, but at the same time, I will be making mostall of the money and currently up 20 points in building up my credit.  <response>: Stop caring so much about your credit score and get out of debt. You have a spending problem. 