The Ramsey Show - App - I Bought A Meth House... (Hour 1)

Episode Date: March 4, 2024

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create amazing relationships. I'm George Campbell, joined by Jade Warshaw this hour. The number to call is 888-825-5225. Don't be scared. You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. That's all we want to do is help you take the right next step and maybe talk you off a ledge if you're about to do something stupid. That's always a fun call. The preventative medicine versus the emergency surgery. All right, let's kick it off with Maria in Denver, Colorado. What's going on, Maria?

Hi, thanks for taking my call. So I purchased a home from a meth addict, and I'm now $33,000 in debt because I had to do remediations on the home after I closed. And I'm just curious how I should best pay this off and salvage my credit. I did receive a settlement from the owner after discovering this problem, but I still have probably 80K in repairs to make to the home. And I'm just curious how I can pay it down and salvage my credit. So how much total debt do you have outside of a mortgage? The $33,000, I don't have any other debt outside of my mortgage. How many cards is that across?

Across three cards. How much money are you bringing in every month? I'm bringing in about $4,000, no, probably $5,500. $5,500. And then what portion of that is your mortgage payment? $2,800. Yipes. All right.

We got troubles. We got troubles. So tell me a little bit more about this. Did you call it a remediation? Yeah. this did you call it a remediation yeah so um they had to rip out the kitchen all the doors all the lighting anything porous anything wood so i basically bought the home and then they stripped it um i found out two days after closing that did none of this come up in the inspection that's my question no yeah none of it came up in the inspection so how did this come up in the inspection? That's my question. No. Yeah, none of it came up in the inspection. So how did it come up?

I received a police report that I had requested two days after closing. I had received every other police report, and they had some police activity at this property because I did my due diligence and I looked through it. Uh-huh. But I didn't receive the one report that had the previous owner handing over the meth to the police at her home saying she had a problem until two days after closing. I don't know what happened to that one report that held it up, but every other report was about a dog or about...

So she was cooking meth in the house? No, no, not cooking, just doing just doing this even at that level you still have to remediate oh my goodness and you said there's still eighty thousand dollars of repairs is this related to that or this is just other repairs that you were planning on doing related they stripped the home um after i purchased it and so I couldn't really go back and take, I couldn't like undo the loan. Essentially I sued her and I got, thankfully I got about 60 grand back,

but still there's- So what happened to that? Yeah, what happened to that 60K? So I have that and that's my question is, how do I pay down? Like, do I pay it on one month's sum? Because I'm just worried that if and that's my question is how do I pay down? Like do I pay it on one lump sum? Because I'm just worried that if I pay off my debt in one lump sum, it's going to crash my credit more.

I would not be conservative with your credit right now. Me neither. You've got bigger problems and bigger fish to fry. I would knock out all the credit card debt today. The rest becomes your emergency fund, and then we cash flow the rest of the repairs. Okay. And so just make the rest of the pairs as

on cash as you're able to on cash yeah okay but leave three to six months of expenses in there for actual emergencies which is not known repairs okay because we want to avoid you going further i don't know why you're concerned about the credit at this point you're not going to go take out more debt, are you? No, but it just... And you've got... Listen, you've got a home. You're going to make a mortgage payment every single month. You're going to be just fine.

The credit score will settle itself. Yeah. And you're not planning on taking out more credit. So... No. Okay. You're right. You're right.

That's the only point of having a good credit score is so you can access more debt. Yeah. Well, I do want to, I was planning to start like buying other homes and, you know. No, no, no, no. We're done buying homes right now. We need to focus on our problems today and we can become real estate moguls down the line when you have a paid for property and money in the bank to pay cash. Well, here's the thing, Maria. We're not, and hear us when we say we here's the thing, Maria. We're not in here when we say we're not the point of we're not intentionally trying to tank your credit.

However, George and I both know that when when you set down the path of paying off debt, you're also simultaneously saying not not only am I paying off this debt, but I'm not going to borrow money in the future. Otherwise, what's the point of paying off debt just so you can get more and paid off again? That doesn't really make sense. So there's kind of this assumption that if you're paying off your debt, if you're working this hard to do that, if you're taking this lump sum and you're being diligent in that way, you kind of have to think about the future and go, okay, well, if I've done all this work, then in the future, I'm going to pay cash the same way you're going to pay cash for these other remediations that have to take place

in the same way, you know, in the future, if you do choose to buy real estate, you'll save up and pay cash for it. Even though that sounds like a mountain load of cash, it's just good to kind of draw that line in the sand. Okay, well, great. Then that makes my solution easy, just pay it down and work with the remaining cash. Well, I'm equally as worried, Maria, about this mortgage. It is 51% of your take-home pay. down and yeah work with their money cash well i'm equally as worried maria about this mortgage is 51 of your take-home pay yeah well i have two roommates okay so i'm not paying it all myself no but go ahead george well i'm just there's there's a lot going on here now

with the roommate situation yeah are they chipping in yeah i want to know can we have some clarity so you own the house are they chipping in at all for any other repairs? Because you're the landlord, so it's on you. Oh, I guess that's true. But are you increasing the rent to help cover some of this or what's the deal there? No, rent is staying the same with them. They are helping with repairs like by, you know, helping come in and actually do the repairs. So their time, they're paying me with their time. Right. And that's fine.

So that's been helpful. And then also my mortgage lender offered two years free refinancing. So hopefully if all goes well, not predicting the future, but if all goes well, I'll be able to refinance. So if the rates drop, they're saying we were not going to charge you to refinance. Exactly. Interesting. The only thing that makes me worried about this situation is when people own homes, but they can't afford the rent on their own.

So they have roommates. I always like a situation where you can float the rent on your own and you can do the mortgage on your own and you can do the mortgage on your own you don't need the roommates for it to you know in order for it to not be dangerous for you and I don't like the fact that this would be dangerous for you if something happened with the roommates that's that's my only red flag on this well I can definitely float the rent myself the so what I told you the mortgage I guess i should clarify that also includes utilities insurance all of the things bundled i have no car debt i have no other debt um my monthly expenses include cell phone my cell phone and that's more or less that outside of food so i can definitely

flow the rent on my own well i'd focus on just knocking out this credit card debt today, cut up the cards, don't look back, use the rest of the emergency fund and cash flow the rest of these repairs. Do not go into debt ever again. I'm sorry you're going through this. That's crazy. Goodness gracious, these inspectors. Should I just go become an inspector? Looks good, guys.

I don't understand how that was missed. Wow. All right. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Jade Warshaw. The number to call is 888-825-5225. Well, it's time for our long-running segment, Jade. And by long-running, you mean this is the third time?

Third time. Okay. It's long for me, you know. So it's called Pick a Side. And this is where we have two people on the line, and we have to help them kind of settle a debate. And you and I, at the end of it, have to pick a side after we hear them out and hear their case.

I enjoy this thoroughly. I'd pitch Judge George for the name of this segment. They didn't like that. Judge George? And I wanted a little gavel. Oh. Just a little baby gavel. Then I'm going to pitch Judge Jade.

Oh, dang. That's so much cooler. All right. I give up. Here we go. Let's see what Jennifer and Joe have to say in Denver, Colorado. What's going on, guys? Hi.

Yeah, I'm ready to buy a new car, and my husband thinks I'm fine with the one that I have. Ooh. Wow. All right, Joe, what do you have to say for yourself? Well, I do agree that she needs a new car. She just wants to spend way too much on a new car. What does she want to spend? $50,000. That's a lot of money. And that's the most you guys have ever spent on anything outside of a house, I'm guessing?

Yes. Okay. Where are you guys at financially? We're on baby step seven. Paid for house, no debt, love it. And what's your net worth? It would be what our house is worth. Yeah, $600,000.

Plus retirement? $700,000. So not? $1,700,000. So not quite a million? No. Okay. All right. And what's the household income? $150,000 approximately. Last year we did $150,000.

Okay. And how much cash do you guys have in the bank? We have our emergency fund right now of $10,000. And I got $10,000 in my business account. So $10,000 and $10,000, if you were to buy this car, A, were you thinking of getting something brand spanking new? And two, how were you going to pay for it? I would want to save up for it.

Okay. And I don't necessarily want something new. It's just what I want just came out. So I want to wait a couple of years until I can buy one a couple of years old. What kind of car is it? Can you tell us? It's the Toyota Grand Highlander. Highlander. Where's John Deloney when we need him? That's what he ended up getting. I need like a picture of a Highlander. I don't really know what that is. I'm going to Google it. They're beautiful.

Really great cars. Okay. So what is the car you're currently driving? I have a 2007 Acura MDX and it's getting close to 200,000 miles on it. Oh, she's just getting started. That's a nice, that's a nice little ride though. The MDX is invincible. Okay.

Love that. And what is he driving? I'm curious. I have a 2004 GMC pickup truck. And then we also have a 2020 Transit Connect van. I'm self-employed and so I use that van for work. Cool. Okay. Might be time for both of you to upgrade. Maybe step seven, living like no one else. I know that's right. So I'm guessing you guys have a sizable margin in your budget now to save up. How much could you throw every single month just to kind of a side savings account? Oh, I think we could have it saved in six months. Wow. Yes. Yeah.

That's pretty impressive. It's pretty simple. So yeah, I mean, we could save five, six thousand a month. That's great. Okay. okay so um tell us joe why tell us what you would do if it were your choice obviously we know jennifer wants his fifty thousand dollar toyota highlander slightly used in your book what's something a little bit more reasonable 30 35 000 maybe not the grand highlander but the regular highlander that's what i'm looking at this one i'm looking at is like 30,000 2023 highlander le is that not the one no i want the grand highlander you want the big boy they just came out in 2024 okay joe i'm curious where did you get that 35 number from? Just your heart?

Oh, yeah, just my heart. Oh, yeah. I mean, I look on Craigslist, and you can find the regular Highlanders. Yeah, I see one. 30, 30,000 miles for 30,000 or so. Yeah, I see what's going on here. Okay, interesting. Oh, all right.

We have a lot of information here. I feel like, you know, we've been doing Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps for a long time. I feel like I've been living like nobody else. When do I, we're on Baby Step 7. When do I get to live like nobody else? Listen, I feel that. So tell me, when was the last time you did an activity that you would call a live like no one else, the latter? Like at least a couple of grand. Yeah.

Where you're like, we dropped some money on this. We went to the Dominican. Yeah. Okay. When was that? Last month. Nice. Okay.

So you guys are enjoying life. Yes. So we would say you've driven like no one else. Now it's time to drive like no one else. You've driven the Hoopty Dave car. Now it's time to drive the Dave car.

You know what I'm saying? I've made up my mind. I know how I'm going to vote. I got in a car accident a couple months ago so it's dinged up on the side. Oh man, listen you keep playing. Tell us more. She's really playing it up. All these stupid little

things don't work on it anymore like you cannot reset my clock. You can't tell what time it is in there. Jennifer, I call those special features. My seatbelt doesn't go back. Listen, I got my phone in the car. I got my Apple watch in the car. I know what time it is.

It's fine. That's not a big deal. But I'm with you. Okay, can I vote? I know what my vote is. Are we casting votes? I think we're casting votes you guys ready to hear the the verdict yeah let's say it on three all right or the name of the

person that we think is right uh yeah say the name of the person you think is right on three one two three jennifer yeah oh my jennifer you just won a brand new i'm just kidding that'd be fantastic now dinette said from broy hill i could what do you think are you shocked Jennifer, you just won a brand new Toyota Highlander. That'd be fantastic. And a dinette set from Broy Hill. What do you think? Are you shocked? No.

I'm shocked. Of course Joe is shocked. Here's the thing, because I know this. We bought my wife a new-to-us car. It was a slightly used luxury car, and it hurt my soul, Joe, to write that check. But I also knew this is part of living the plan part of the plan and i have a hard time letting go and writing a big check like that but when you pay for it in cash you go oh my gosh that was a lot and then you go this is paid for this is amazing this is a huge blessing and it's why we lived like this for so many years and so i

think you guys are doing the right thing. Just so you know the parameters here, you don't want all things with motors and wheels to be more than half of your annual income. So that's where I'm going. All right, 150K is your income. Everything you own should be 75K. Listen, Joe, you could turn around and get yourself a $50,000 car and be all right.

Now, what is this Transit Connect worth? About 20,000, I guess. Yeah yeah so even the 20 plus the 50 for hers that would be 70 you still got some wiggle room there yeah not too much not too much and you know maybe you wait three years and you get the highlander but i think you you go for it in two years from now and you get a two-year-old grand highlander and uh if you can't wait that long then just go for a normal highlander and you can always upgrade later. Nothing says you have to drive this car for the next 20 years, which is kind of how you guys have been living.

Right. I feel like Joe's really disappointed. You shouldn't spend more than 30, but I think that will help you guys to go. Okay. Half of our income shouldn't be tied up in these things. Yeah. That means we do need to scale back because this transit plus the car Joe's going to get,

plus the car Jennifer's going to get, it's going to add up to be a large part of our world. And then once you hit millionaire status, you can go buy that brand new car. And here's why, it's not a fundamentalist thing. It's just that too much of your world would be tied up in a depreciating asset. But when you have a million dollar net worth, you can stomach that hit on depreciation a little easier. And so you guys will be there in no time. How old are you two? I'm 45. And I'm 56.

Oh, my goodness. You got so much time to live and drive like no one else. And you know what, Joe? I think it should be time for you to upgrade after. What is your dream car, Joe? It's a $30,000 car. We know that. It's the one he's got.

I actually love my truck. He wants another GMC pickup. No, he wants to keep the one he has. I like the one I got. That's amazing. It's got an eight-foot bed. It's got the diesel, and I'm good. Thank you, Joe. They don't make those eight-foot beds anymore. All these new pavement princesses out here got the tiniest little beds.

I'm like, what are we even buying pickup trucks for anymore? So then, Joe, real quick, tell us. If you could spend $30,000 on anything, not a vehicle, what is your thing? Like, what's your live like no one else thing? I would do a boat. Hey, okay. There we go. Now we got it.

Joe's in the boat. Thank you guys so much for the call and for letting us have some fun. Excited for you guys to make that cash purchase of that beautiful, new-to-you car very, very soon. More of your calls coming up. 888-825-5225. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Jade Warshaw this hour. The number to call is 888-825-5225.

Springfield, Illinois is where we're heading next. Levi joins us there. Welcome to The Ramsey Show, Levi. Are you with us, Levi? We were so close to getting Levi on the air. Well, we'll try to get you back, Levi. I don't know what happened, but if we can't, I'm sorry, and call back later, my friend.

We're going to go to Taylor up next in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Taylor, welcome to the show. Thank you. Oh, my gosh. Okay, so my husband and I put in an offer on a house, which was accepted right away. We had seven days to turn in the earnest money. And on day five, we decided to not do it. So we told our realtor right away and we never paid the earnest money.

Long story short, we got married last August. We're now pregnant with a baby in July. And we found out last month that my husband who's in the military is deploying this fall for about a year. So the reason that we jumped on this house is because we got scared, tried to make a decision. It would be easier for me to live by myself for a year. Um, and then after signing it,

we were like, this is not a good idea. This is not the house we want. So we canceled. We never paid the earnest money and now the seller's mad and they we canceled. We never paid the earnest money, and now the seller's mad, and they want not only the $3,000 of the earnest money, but they're asking for $5,000, and they're threatening to seek legal counsel, I guess, if we don't pay, and we just don't know what to do. So you signed the offer saying that you would, and the offer said that you would pay their earnest money within seven days. Yes.

What does the contract say about getting out of this? Because generally there's a few ways you could legally back out of this and get your earnest money back or not have to pay. Home inspection contingency, appraisal contingency, financing contingency. Is any of that in the contract? It is, but none of that applies to the situation. And I mean, it was just us backing out of it. Our realtor isn't being very helpful, which we feel like is because obviously she's not. I think you are on the hook for it though, Taylor. If you make an offer, because literally my husband and I were just in this situation a couple weeks back if you make an offer and then they and you work with the agents say

here's what we're offering they send you the paperwork you sign it you're saying when you sign it you're saying i'm going to pay the earnest money within this many days this is what's going to happen next and this was what's going to happen next you're kind of you signing on the dotted line is committing to the offer in many ways in all the ways so there's part of me that thinks that you're on the hook for this and you just the fact that you didn't pay the earnest money doesn't mean that it wasn't due it just meant that you didn't say what you said you were going to do if the contract said that you would provide the money within seven to ten or five to ten business days or whatever it was five to seven days so they what would you do about the five thousand dollars though because it was originally three and now they want more money

yeah where why are they wanting more yeah because they are mad about lost time and they refuse to sign the contract the new one where we said we're we're canceling and not paying. So they're losing time because they won't sign anything. That's up in the air. I feel like that's debatable. I mean, they could probably fight it in court and fight for that lost time and put a dollar value on that. I would see if you can just settle with them for the three and go, listen, here's all we can do. I got a baby on the way. My husband's about to be deployed. We're in a crazy situation. I hate that this happened. Didn't want it to go down like this. Here's your three. I don't know if there's a legal way you can get out of this without you fighting it. And I don't

think you guys have the money or time to go to court and fight this. No. That's the thing. Listen, I hate that this happened, Taylor, but I tell people all the time, like that earnest money, if you buy the house, it goes towards the down payment. But if you don't, that's money up front that you're spending, that obviously you have the propensity to lose. And that. I call it skin in the game money. This shows I'm really serious about, you know, buying this house. And so the other thing you could do, which has its own risks of going through with the home inspection and the appraisal and financing and then having one of those things cause an issue to where you back out yeah but it sounds like these people are angry enough that they're not going to be happy if you back out later on and waste even more of their time yeah okay it's tough so those that's a road you could go down but i'm telling you you could still end

up paying and it still could be messy if it were me i'd take the contract and i would ask around and i'd ask a couple of different real estate agents i'd say like am i on the hook for this am i on the hook for this and see if you can get some free counsel from other agents if you say that yours is not helping out much which never use them again again, by the way. Maybe contact a real estate attorney and say, and just do a free consult and say, here's my situation. Do you think I have any, a case here to even fight this or what should I do? Yeah. We're just concerned. We don't want this to go on any longer because obviously they're mad about last time and we tried to cancel as soon as possible, but it went on way longer because they're fighting it.

We're a little confused why they wouldn't just want to put their house back on the market, but they can't do that until this is done. So they're losing time on their own. So this is causing them to hang in the balance here until they get the situation sorted with you guys. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you guys, you have the $3,000. How much do you guys have in cash? About $15,000. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you guys, you have the $3,000. How much do you guys have in cash? About $15,000. Okay. Yeah.

I'm going to label this under kind of a stupid tax, and we learn from the mistake, and we move on and go, that hurt. Let's not make decisions out of desperation again, because this is the kind of stuff that will happen. Okay. So are you guys going to rent for the foreseeable future while your husband's deployed? We own a house and we talked about renting or buying and I hated all the rentals and it just didn't feel like home. And so we looked at a house that was closer because we live pretty far out. And I mean, the interest rate is double what ours is at. And we just felt like it would be a big waste of money for us.

And why can't you stay where you're at right now? I can. It's just we're about 25 minutes out from town, so there's not a lot here for me, and I feel kind of alone. You don't have any family nearby? No, and the daycares are far. Like groceries, you know, everything is far away. So I just wanted, like, convenience for myself

because it's going to be hard enough. But yeah, we're not really willing to pay for it anymore. Yeah. Well, if you did move closer to town, you might need to, you know, compromise and settle and go, all right, this rental is good enough for this season that I'm in so that I can be closer to civilization as I raise this baby while my husband is deployed. I mean, that's a lot. Yeah. So I feel for you. But, you know, adding to the chaos of becoming a homeowner, I don't know that it's worth it right now.

Yeah. Especially when you guys have 15 grand to your name. We are in a home spot to take care of it by myself. I just wanted something closer to town so that at least it was easier for me for running errands. Yeah. Now that's reasonable. And I hope you guys get this real estate situation sorted out. But I would have some other people look at the contract, get some other opinions. But I think at the end of the day, you just settle with them and go, we can do three. We can't do the full five. And if they want to waste their time coming at you for that, I don't know if they have a case

first of all, but... They might have a case, but the question, like you said, is it worth the brain calories and time calories to go after someone in Judge George court? It's for sure. You'll be lucky to even make it to a Judge George court. You know? But it'd be some small claim situation right there. But I'm so sorry, Taylor.

Sheesh, I hate that this is happening to you. Yeah, it was a dumb mistake we made but we kind of panicked so. Well we always say on this show never no one makes good decisions when they're panicked or drunk. That's right but you can always go back and try to settle it and see if if they'll take something but. Yeah I mean I would personally have some pity on a you know a soon-to-be mom husband's getting deployed serving our country I'm gonna go like, I don't know, George, because when you're on the other side of it and you've got timelines, like, you know, she was super sweet. But I'm thinking about when Sam and I were moving here, you have a timeline. It's all business. And I'm like, don't mess around and

make an offer because time is money when it comes to this stuff. And I was trying to understand what she was saying. But think that um I think the seller I think they have to have this deal closed and wrapped tight before they can legally accept another offer is that what was going on there is that why they were saying that they were losing time I think right now it's contingent and they can't make it live and active again until this situation is sorted because this offer is still halfway out there. I see. I think that's the issue. Just remember when buying a house, I always say, George, you need that stacked deck and down payment. We know five to 20% earnest money that can be up to one to 3% of the purchase price. It's a lot of money. Also keep in mind

closing costs. If you're going to be the buyer, two to 5%. And then the cave. That stuff adds up. And then you've got moving costs. Appraisals. The repairs. Inspections. Moving costs, like you said. Homeownership is no joke. So for those of you excited about it, make sure you've got your ducks in a row before you jump into this.

This is The Ramsey Show. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Jade Warshaw. We've got a fun event coming up this May, 10th and 11th. It's called Total Money Makeover Weekend, a brand new event where in one weekend, you'll get a crash course on everything we teach about money. And no matter where you're at in your financial journey, the baby steps, this will light a fire under you like nothing else it's going to be interactive lots of q and a's we are coming up with some really fun different talks jade than we've ever

done before trying to spice it up is that what i heard you working on this morning yes okay for those of you listening i heard some crazy hilarious things george it was that we're just workshopping we're just we're trying out some stuff. These people are in for a treat. I like it. It's going to be a blast. Every single Ramsey personality will be on the stage. It's a two-day event, Friday and Saturday, May 10th and 11th. We've got Smart Money Happy Hour on Friday night live.

Nice. We love a live audience for that with Rachel and I. So don't wait to get your tickets to Platinum. Plus, tickets are almost sold out. A handful left. Early bird pricing ends on Thursday of this week. So if you're planning on joining us, get your tickets now to save up to $100. Just go to ramseysolutions.com slash events and start plugging this into your every dollar budget.

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RamseySolutions.com slash Vince is the place to go. All right. Let's go back to Levi in Springfield. Let's see if we can get him on the air.

Levi, are you with us? I am. Thanks for taking my call. You left me on red, bro. I got nervous. How can we help? How are you guys? Doing good.

How are you? Not too bad. I have a little bit of an issue, though. Okay. So my wife and I, we've been working through baby step number two, and we've been making pretty good progress. And I just recently discovered that my identity had been stolen. Aw.

Yikes. And I guess I'm just looking for some guidance on how to navigate that. How bad is it? I'm not really sure. Hopefully not too bad yet. I checked my credit report and there was nothing on there that shouldn't be. I've been keeping an eye on my bank accounts, and everything seems okay there. What happened was they opened up a credit card in my name,

and then just a couple days ago I got three phone bills sent to me for numbers that I do not own. Man, that stinks. And I've been in your exact shoes, Levi. This is back in 2013. I had identity theft. They opened up two cell phone accounts, AT&T, Verizon, racked up $1,700 on both, never paid a dime, using my social security number and an old address. Oh, shoot.

Is it similar to you? Yeah, my social security number, but they're using my current address. That's why I'm getting all the notices. Man. So have you frozen your credit yet? I just did that today. Okay, that's good, that's good. And did you have a fraud alert

placed on all of your credit accounts? No, because I haven't been able to speak with AT&T yet. Okay. It's impossible to speak with a human being with them, I guess. Anyway, I filed a police report yesterday. Okay, good. And I want to keep trying to contact AT&T and get through to them.

But the credit card company put a fraud alert on my credit report. Okay, and they reversed the charges. You want anything on any of that? Nope, there were no charges on the card. I caught it in time. Okay, that's good. Have you filed a report with the Federal Trade Commission yet on their website, FTC? No, I have not. Okay, I would do that's good. Have you filed a report with the Federal Trade Commission yet on their website, FTC? No, I have not.

Okay. I would do that as well. And you've already got the police report, so you're going to need that as you submit it to different creditors and credit bureaus. You might need that. Okay. And outside of that, make sure you're checking all of your accounts regularly. Make sure you have a freeze on all three accounts with all three bureaus. Okay.

And then beyond that, you want to get any account records from all these. If there's a debt collector involved or AT&T, get every record you can get. That's the thing. What if AT&T doesn't cooperate with me on this? What steps do I need to take? Well, I mean, if you have a police report and you have the FTC report, that should be enough to get them to go, oh, this wasn't him. I mean, I don't know how they give you issue or cause you to –

don't ever pay a dime for any of these accounts. Gotcha. Even if it goes to collections. Yeah, I wasn't – This is not your – Yeah, I wasn't planning on paying anything, but – And then did you already connect your – talk to your bank? No, I haven't spoke to my bank yet.

Okay. That'd be my next move when I get off the phone with us. Let them know that this has happened because who knows what else they have, but I would probably get a new account set up with a new debit card attached. Yeah. Okay. And also contact your utility providers and let them know. Do I need to contact the office of social security? If you think that, if you suspect that they have either your social security card, if you suspect that they have your driver's license, I'd contact social security. I'd contact the DMV. And maybe even if you think they might have your passport. Only you can suspect what you think's going on here and how

you think they got their your information and so yeah i would i would contact them on their website and see if you can get a replacement okay yeah i know they don't have my physical cards but i don't think you can open up a phone line without a social security number so that's just why i assume they have it yeah they have an office of the inspector general and i'll send you and we'll send you the blog post that outlines all the steps you need to take. I would also update your main passwords and usernames. Okay. And for the future, ID theft protection is super important to have.

We have it on every single team member here at Ramsey, and ours is through our friends at Zander. So it's like an insurance. It's not technically an insurance product, but that will help with all the restoration services that you need to get your life back and it's super cheap like before i came here i think i paid like 12 bucks a month now it's i think it's like seven bucks a month yeah for me and my husband yeah um levi will make sure to send you that the article that outlines all these steps but man the truth is it's just going to take uh some time and effort

to get all this sorted out but you're going to be okay. Yeah. I think that that- Don't lose sleep over it. Having that ID theft protection is going to be really important going forward because a lot of times once your ID is stolen once, it's kind of like that information is out there and it's likely that it can happen again. So having somebody who's monitoring it all the time is a big, big deal. Yeah. And we'll hook you up with our friends at Zander as well and see what they can do about it

after the fact to help you clean this up, man. So sorry you're going through this. Ooh, be sure. Hey, one other thing. Be sure to monitor your tax return too. Make sure that they're not trying to get their paws at that

because that is a pain in the, you know what, to go through. Yeah. Thanks for the call, Levi. I appreciate it, man. And for everyone listening out there, if you want to check out that blog article that I wrote, it's called What to Do If Your Identity is Stolen.

It's on the Ramsey Solutions website, and we will put a link in the description and show notes wherever you're listening, so you can just scroll down there and click, and we'll make sure that Levi gets that as well. But be sure to check out Xander's ID theft protection. It really is a great way to make sure you're covered, your family's covered. Again, it's like I'm seeing here on their website, individual $6.75 a month, $75 a year.

For a whole family, it's $145 a year, $12.90 a month. And it has saved my bacon one or two times when that does happen. It's one of those things like home insurance. You hope you don't have to use it, but goodness, when it's there and this lady at Zander's handling everything for me and I just submit all the paperwork, it just gave me a little bit of peace and confidence as I went along my business. I've never had my identity stolen. I've had a debit card, you know, like somebody gets your debit card number and tries to buy

Xboxes, which is what happened to Sam and I one Christmas Eve. But other than that, like never the extreme of like, they've got my social and they've got my. Well, it's almost like a like a home invasion, just such an invasion of your own privacy. Yeah. I mean, they're stealing from you at the at the most personal level. Yeah. And the truth is, this happens so often that like rarely you're going to get that.

I wanted these people to like go to jail and they're like, it doesn't work like that. You want to see him taken away in handcuffs. I went full detective. I was like, I'm going to find out who these people are. My wife was like, please don't, don't do that. You don't know what you're doing. You're not John Wick. All right. You're not, this is not going to be some Liam Neeson level, you know, revenge story. I'm learning that about you, George, that you really do like to get to the bottom of things. I'm thinking about another story you told me. I'm a nice guy until I'm not a nice guy. But truly, it is so, so funny. It is not a fun thing to deal with. And so you want to make sure, you know, with one of these ID theft protection services, what they're offering

is number one, real time identity monitoring, instant alerts, the recovery work for every type of identity theft. And what's really cool, recovery of up to a million dollars in stolen funds. Wow. That's partially what's covered with identity theft protection. So be sure to check it out at ramsaysolutions.com. You can find our identity theft protection help from our friends at Zander. That puts this hour of the Ramsey Show in the books. Thank you to my co-host, Jade Warshaw, all the folks in the booth. We got Skyler, Ben, Austin, Zach, Nathan, Bobby, all hanging out back there, keeping the show afloat. And you, America, thank you so much for listening. We appreciate it. We'll be back before you know it. Thank you.