<prompt> Human: My girlfriend has a credit card debt of lets say 200. For a fact I know that she has enough money to pay it off in full right off the bat, and has much much more left after that. My question is why wouldnt someone want to pay off that credit card? She doesnt have income and is just getting charged these interest rates for the 200, so then it becomes 210, 220, ... etc net cost. Why wouldnt you pay it off?  <response>: Because people are poorly educated about the basics of compounding interest and the way credit scores are calculated. May believe carrying debt on cards builds credit and is intelligent; its not. 