<prompt> Human: Longtime redditor using a throwaway account due to deep embarrassment about my situation. This is my cakeday thread. :I spent two years being depressed and with an income of less than 5000year. This resulted in 14000 of credit card debt with APR ranging from 13-23, with the largest balance 5000 being on the 23 card. I also have 16K of student loans at an interest rate of 6. My income is now 30Kyear. I have no savings, no retirement funds, no car, no house, nothing of worth.Ive always been a diligent debtor. Always paid everything on time and was worried about the effects of default on my credit score. But I am feeling overwhelmed with the amount of debt I have to pay off and the amount of money going to interest. I have a high utilization and have not been able to get any 0 interest or balance transfer offers. I have called the credit card companies and nobody is budging on dropping the interest rate. My current credit score is 680.I am going to be entering grad school and have no plans to buy a car, house, anything for a while. I have no family to support nor do I see one in the near future. Im trying to figure out ways to get out from under this. I see a few options: continue to helplessly throw money at credit cards, get additional jobs, etc bankruptcy debt consolidation loan though Ive read thats not necessarily a great idea either, and its not like I have anything to offer in equity I read a comment in one of these threads that recommended dropping all payments, saving the money Id put towards payments, waiting 180 days, and then attempt to negotiate with collections to pay off each debt for lower than the original amount owed.Does anyone have recommendations? Ideas?EDIT I know student loans do not get discharged through bankruptcy and cant be negotiated down. Im planning on continuing to pay those off as normal. Strategies above apply purely to the credit card debt.  <response>: I know that may sound like a lot of debt, but depending on the source you find, thats probably even less than the average US credit card balancedebt.If we guess that the average rate of your cards is 20, youre only paying 2800 a year in interest. Granted, thats an awful waste, but totally workable on a 30kyear salary.You said you had an income of 5k for two years and gained 14k in debt. This means your expenses are only about 12kyear. If you can keep it that low, it leaves you with about 18k, subtract out the 2800 in interest and youre left with around 15k which is more than your balance!Now I realize that youre probably paying student loans now that you probably werent before, but you can definitely be free from the credit card debt in less than 2 years. However, nuking your credit will chase you for a long time. Once you pay down the higher balance cards, the interest will start to drop like a rock.Dig deep and know that you can beat this with a little hard work and determination. 