 The Dave Ramsey Show, where common sense meets dollars and cents. Patrick in Texas says, my wife thinks we should have an emergency credit card. How can I explain to her that this is a terrible idea? Well, the last time on earth that you need to go into debt at 18% interest would be at a time when your family has an emergency. What you need is money. If you had $20,000 set aside for an emergency fund, you wouldn't need an emergency credit card. On your news and information leader, 1240.