Our son, during a period of "independence"-display when he had caused something of a rift with his parents (although contact was never broken or even acutely strained), built up a growing debt on his credit card and then on from there as a small loan. As the enthusiasm for a display faded and discomfort/worry grew over the hopelessness of ever clearing the total, we agreed he was in a near permanent trap of this "black hole" draining his resources and he would have to service it forever. We cleared the lot for him. To his credit he has never made the same mistake again, he uses the credit card very sparingly for method convenience only (cut it up at first to go cold turkey) and pays in full every month. He has recently bought his own house with absolutely minimal support from us. Sometimes lessons actually are learned.