A Single Father Owes $140,000 In Credit Cards With Rates Up To 32%. Dave Ramsey Host Asks, 'Can You Take Your Kid With You To Do DoorDash?'
- - A Single Father Owes $140,000 In Credit Cards With Rates Up To 32%. Dave Ramsey Host Asks, 'Can You Take Your Kid With You To Do DoorDash?'
Adrian VolenikNovember 16, 2025 at 2:31 AM
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A Single Father Owes $140,000 In Credit Cards With Rates Up To 32%. Dave Ramsey Host Asks, 'Can You Take Your Kid With You To Do DoorDash?'
A single father from Los Angeles called into “The Ramsey Show” recently with a gut-wrenching story and a mountain of credit card debt. The caller, Dave, said he found the show for the first time just days before reaching out for help.
Crushed By Debt
Dave explained that he went through a life-or-death family crisis three years ago, which left him with $140,000 in credit card debt. “I have no regrets. I would do that again every day,” he said, adding that resolving the crisis was worth every dollar.
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Still, the aftermath has been brutal. “The credit card debt is crazy. Some cards are $22,000, others are $32,000,” he said. Interest rates on the cards range from 25% to 32%.
With a five-year-old daughter and no help, Dave is barely scraping by. He makes about $8,400 a month, but said his mortgage eats up half of that, and the rest goes to minimum payments, gas, and food. “No disposable income, no backup money whatsoever,” he said. “If I had another crisis, I would drown.”
Co-host John Delony didn’t sugarcoat it. “Your house is not a blessing, brother. It’s killing you,” he said. Devoting 50% of income to housing costs is a massive red flag. “The mortgage is a bigger problem than the credit card debt almost,” co-host Jade Warshaw added.
Dave noted that his mortgage payment is temporarily inflated because he fell behind on property taxes during the crisis. He said his lender added those costs into his escrow, raising the monthly bill, but that will drop by $1,500 in March.
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No Quick Fix, No Shortcuts
“The Ramsey Show” hosts were straightforward with Dave, saying there's no quick fix, and definitely no shortcut through debt relief firms.
One of Dave’s questions was whether he should consider a third-party service that offered to negotiate his debt. “No, no, no, no, no,” Delony said firmly. “Don't do that. It's a total scam.”
Warshaw added that those companies do little more than set people up to stop paying creditors, damage their credit, and collect fees. “If you really wanted to go that route, couldn't you do that yourself?” she asked. “You don't have to do that.”
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Instead, the hosts encouraged Dave to find a way to bring in more money, even if it means getting creative.
“Can you take your kid with you to do some DoorDash and to do some Uber Eats?” Warshaw asked. “I’ve seen it. And to do some grocery runs for folks. That's what you've got to do. That's the only way you're paying this off.”
She didn't pretend it would be easy. “There's not going to be anything comfortable about it. There's not going to be anything easy about it.”
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Source: “AOL Money”
