"These Guys Are Absolute Buttholes"

[Music] Brought to you by the Every Dollar app. Start budgeting for free today. My question in short is, is my mom responsible for my dad's credit card debt? Here's what's happened. He's been moved to assisted living about 9 months ago. Before that, um, he'd racked up credit card debt of about $18,000. Um, she's right now just paying off the interest on that monthly to get by. He does have some VA assistance that helps with his assisted living, but she's 75. Um, she cannot afford to continue doing that. So, I'm wondering it's an American Express card. How aggressive are they? She let that go into default. She's not on She's not on his She didn't co-sign with him, but she did at one time. Um, he got her a credit card, but she no longer has that as just kind of an accessory. Um, it's all in his name. It's his debt. Does he have any assets? Do they own a home? Yes. Um, they do. He's not living in it. She is. Doesn't matter. They could sue him and take a lean against his home, which happens to be where she lives. Yes. That's a problem. They have no money. Uh, no. No. She works part-time job just three days a week um to just bring in groceries and that sort of stuff. But other than that, their home is paid off. Yes. But um other than that, no. It just goes to insurance, property taxes, that sort of stuff. Yeah. I'm sorry. Um do you have any money? Uh yeah, but not that kind of money. Okay. Do you have other siblings, Matt? Uh one sister. Yes. What's the house worth? Their house. Oh, they had just moved into it before he started his fall and it's worth probably 700,000 and it's paid for. Yes. Okay. All right. Well, in order to save the house, we're going to have to deal with MX. Okay. So, um, they're not going to sue. If they do sue, they're they're very aggressive in their collection tactics. Uh but they're not real aggressive in actually forcing the sale of a house that they've taken a judgment lean against. That would be like less than one quarter of 1% chance of that happening. Okay. They technically could uh where where's the house? What state? What state? It's in It's in Montana. Okay. All right. I don't know Montana law. Uh, but I suspect they could take a lean against the house and eventually execute on the lean and force the sale of the house in order to pay them. And they're going to just drive her bananas in the six years it would take for them to get to that point. Okay. So, um, I don't suggest doing that. It's going to be a it's going to be a problem for you for her and and sweet lady's just going to get harassed. Now, was he of diminished capacity when he used the card? Uh, starting to get that way. He he racked up a lot of it on dental bills um here in the last year or so, just before he went to assisted living without her knowing. Yeah, I know that her knowing is not necessary, but if he wasn't uh if he was like in early onset or something and you can get a doctor's letter, that'll help you uh with the process here. Okay. So, anyway, what I would do is this. I just stop paying it. Let it go bad. Okay. Okay. And and teach her to don't have conversations with them. Don't even talk to them. If they call or they send something, just ignore it because they're going to drive if she picks up the phone every time they call, they're going to drive her nuts. All right. And then uh after about 6 to n months, uh you and your sister scrape together $5,000 and settle this. Okay. y'all settle it and get it out of there. So, your mama's house is not at risk while your dad's um declining. You feel like AMX would settle on that knowing they'll settle pennies on the dollar once it's 9 months old. Once it's 9 months old because they don't think they're going to get their money then. Statistically, they're not going to get their money, right? Will they be the ones to call us? Will they turn it over to creditors? Uh, usually they'll keep it they'll keep it at least a year usually. Okay. And I will tell you they they are absolute buttholes. They are horrible to deal with. If you work for AMX in the credit card collections department, you should be ashamed of yourself and go get a good job. They're a horrible company. Okay? So, just get ready to deal with Satan. Okay? I mean, seriously, this is what you're going in with. It's it's horrible. All right? So, I I you know, I've dealt with them. I don't know, a 500 or a thousand times on behalf of clients and once on behalf of myself 35 years ago. So, no, you do you do not want to. But the trick is you just got to play hard ball and go, look, you're not She doesn't have the money. That's the thing. She doesn't have the money. You're not getting paid. They don't have any assets. And we're offering you a settlement on a bad debt. Hang up. We're offering you a settlement on a bad debt. She doesn't have any money. Do you want some money? hang up. You're going to have to do that like 10 times before you find someone with two brain cells down there to rub together. Okay. Okay. And when you do finally get somebody on there, they're going to go, "Oh, this guy's cuz they they record every of one of the transactions on the file." So, they see every time we start yowing at them, they hang up. Then they'll know that. So, the next time they pick up, go look, don't start or you're going to be another hangup. And if you get it, Matt, get it in writing. Have them have them email you immediately a letter so you have actual evidence that they because they lied. If they say they did something, they didn't do it. If it's not in writing, it didn't happen. Brother, thank you so much for your advice. I will start saving. I appreciate you both. Hey, be good, man. Sorry you're facing that. I know. It's so sad for his mom. This is why we tell you to save 15% of your household income at baby step 4 before you get to baby step six and pay off your house. Because if you have a paid for house and no money, you can get in a pinch. Create your free every dollar budget today.