<human>: Can you give me the gist of the text in a nutshell?

My wife has a credit card that she opened through a small credit union 10 years ago. She opened it at the bank's suggestion when she started an auto loan with them. She was young, and let the prospect of credit run her a little wild. In the end, she maxed out the card and proceed to only pay the minimum each month as required.

Several months later, due to completely unrelated personal problems, she moved back home and effectively forgot that the card even existed. The credit union didn't have any branches back home, so she opened a new account at a new bank and moved on with her life.

Several years later, after I had entered her life, we were attempting to get her finances in order and I discovered this credit card. I immediately asked her to contact the bank to confirm what her balance looked like, and to our horror, a $500 credit card had a balance of over $1800, almost entirely due to late charges and interest. 

In the time since, she has been making minimal payments monthly, but I am starting to wear thin with the time it is taking to pay off this balance. At the rate she is going, she still won't have the card paid off in 2 years time. And it has been closed now for over 8 years. She is, in essence, just paying the bank for fees and interest that accrued.

I know I haven't supplied many specific details on the limits, the payments, etc., but my focus is more on how this kind of situation is considered fair. She hasn't made a purchase on the card in a decade, the account is closed, and we're basically paying the bank for their time to maintain the account and remind us that we owe them money. 

Is there any kind of relief available (we're in California, but the issuing bank is in Colorado) when you've reached a point that you're only paying fees? I'm sure the bank will argue that there is, in fact, still principal due, but regardless of that?
<bot>: Wife has an old credit card that has an enormous balance compared to its initial limit. It's almost all fees. Anything that can be done?