Question for those who stopped paying c.c's before filing BK7

[butterflywings]

Hi!

I am considering stopping paying my c.c's now here at the end of January as I will be filing BK7 on the first of March. So in that case c.c bills starting to be due in Feb won't get paid.

For those of you who have BK'd or are in the middle of BK'g Citi, Chase, Amex and Bank of America, did they start calling you when you were just one month late, or did they send you a two month bill before they ever started calling you about it?

I am just wondering how soon I would start getting calls and how many bills would they send out before they started calling.

Also do they send you out a warning letter before they start calling or what is the general process? How soon do they close your account etc?

How soon did other c.c companies upon account review change your interest rate and close their accounts as well?

Thanks! I look forward to hearing from everyone and have a great day!

[Lindsay]

Butterfly, are you in New York too? We stopped paying in July of 2007. Some of the cards like Discover started calling at about only 2 weeks late. Chase sued us after the third missed payment and had a summons delivered to us. Bank of America didn't bother us too much at all. I don't think they even called until we were 3 months late. Bank of America called me the other day and offered a 1350 settlement on our 8500 balance. If all of our creditors offered that good of a settlement, I probably would cancel the BK. Citibank called alot, but their collectors weren't bad. I explained the situation and they didn't really press. Did you retain a lawyer yet? We just retained our lawyer 2 weeks ago after finally finding the nicest lawyer in our area. Now when they call, I just give them his name and number and then they stop calling.

Hopefully you have caller ID on your phone; it is well worth the money because you can keep track of the calls. If you plan on filing in March, you shouldn't have too much to deal with though.

[jdmc1973]

Mine started calling me about 3-4 weeks after I hadn't paid by the due date on the bills.....and between then and the time I filed, boy did they ever call, sometimes up to 25 times a day. I had Chase, BOA, Juniper, Citi, Dell, WAMU, HSBC, Cap1, and Target. I heard the least from BOA and the most from HSBC and WAMU. They closed the accounts after they'd received notice that I had filed. After I filed I didn't hear from anyone for a while and then HSBC decided they'd call me and write me a letter asking for money, to which my lawyer promptly sent them a warning letter telling them they were violating the automatic stay.

[newimges]

I stopped paying most of my ccs in January of last year and didn't file until October. Most didn't start calling until after 30 days past due.

I bought a really nice caller id with a blocker so that their calls didn't even ring through. It was the best investment I ever made.

[monkatom]

I have BofA, chase, capital one and Amer Exp. I am about three weeks late and so far chase, AE, and BofA have called. Today I finally answered the phoen and told chase to contact my lawyer. that felt good. will file next month

[magyar123]

If you really intend to file on March 1, But don't make any payments for February, don't worry about getting nasty phone calls. On your February statements/payments due in March they'll add on late charges. They'll start bugging the hell out of you if you don't make any payments AFTERr the second or the third month.
But a note of warning - if you ever made one time online payments or have it set up for recurring payments to any of them, go delete your bank account information. They might try to rob you.

[my4devils]

I just posted something similar in the collections thread. We got calls almost right away. Most from HSBC, WaMu, Chase and GE Money definitely being the worst. We are also filing the end of Feb/ beginning of March so we are going to begin referring them to our lawyer. Hopefully that will slow them down a bit. I did change my ringtone to a song my kids like so at least I get to see them dance around when my phone rings- they are getting tired though.

[DontBother]

Most of the big creditors out there (BofA, Chase, Wells Fargo, etc, etc, etc) use risk-based models in deciding if/when to call delinquent customers. There are several parameters that go into these algorithms. For example, if you're a customer who, historically, needs a "reminder" phone call to pay your bill, you'll probably get a phone call almost immediately. If you're a customer who consistently pays 25 days late, then you probably won't get a phone call immediately. Instead, maybe you'll get one at 35 days delinquent...

With at least one of the big creditors (that I have info about), I know that there can be upwards of 250 different profiles or algorithms that decided if/when they will call delinquent customers.

[Lindsay]

Don't Bother, I think you are right about that. When our financial situation was better, we always paid our car loan and mortgage before the due date. When things got tighter, and we'd be a week or so late, they'd call really quick. Sometimes the mortgage company would call 2 or 3 days after the due date! Now they don't bother to call on the car until we're almost a month late. I guess the collection calls are expensive so they probably do use some sort of screening.

[butterflywings]

But a note of warning - if you ever made one time online payments or have it set up for recurring payments to any of them, go delete your bank account information. They might try to rob you.

Hi! I am off to take your advice as we speak. Question for you first though. Could the c.c company try and take the money out of the account if the checking account used for online payments is only in my dh's name and not mine, not to mention the credit card account is ONLY in my name.

Hopefully I am going to be able to remove the bank account information from all of these cards.

[butterflywings]

Butterfly, are you in New York too? We stopped paying in July of 2007. Some of the cards like Discover started calling at about only 2 weeks late. Chase sued us after the third missed payment and had a summons delivered to us. Bank of America didn't bother us too much at all. I don't think they even called until we were 3 months late. Bank of America called me the other day and offered a 1350 settlement on our 8500 balance. If all of our creditors offered that good of a settlement, I probably would cancel the BK. Citibank called alot, but their collectors weren't bad. I explained the situation and they didn't really press. Did you retain a lawyer yet? We just retained our lawyer 2 weeks ago after finally finding the nicest lawyer in our area. Now when they call, I just give them his name and number and then they stop calling.

Hopefully you have caller ID on your phone; it is well worth the money because you can keep track of the calls. If you plan on filing in March, you shouldn't have too much to deal with though.

Hi Lindsay, yes I am in NY. I have not retained an attorney yet because I am only 2 months past my Sears MC card usage. I did not use it at Sears so there is no security interest, but I want to wait 90 days after that $775 charge before I retain a lawyer because I don't want the c.c company to file an adversarial procedure saying she retained a lawyer merely 2 months after the charge so she would have HAD to have known she couldn't repay. The whole balance on that card is $775 as I paid off that card years ago but having not using the card for a few years then using it one time and then filing BK 90 days later, well I want to tread carefully. I doubt they would quibble over 700 bucks but who knows? All of my other cards I am 3 months out of any charges as I speak.

I'm going to order caller ID in a few minutes. Thanks for your reply!

[butterflywings]

Mine started calling me about 3-4 weeks after I hadn't paid by the due date on the bills.....and between then and the time I filed, boy did they ever call, sometimes up to 25 times a day. I had Chase, BOA, Juniper, Citi, Dell, WAMU, HSBC, Cap1, and Target. I heard the least from BOA and the most from HSBC and WAMU. They closed the accounts after they'd received notice that I had filed. After I filed I didn't hear from anyone for a while and then HSBC decided they'd call me and write me a letter asking for money, to which my lawyer promptly sent them a warning letter telling them they were violating the automatic stay.

25 times a day! Omg!

Caller ID here I come.

[butterflywings]

I stopped paying most of my ccs in January of last year and didn't file until October. Most didn't start calling until after 30 days past due.

I bought a really nice caller id with a blocker so that their calls didn't even ring through. It was the best investment I ever made.

Ok, I have thought about doing just that and blocking their calls, but I am terrified that if I don't at least keep in touch with them some way that they will retaliate by calling friends, family, neighbors "looking" for me.

I am not going to tell them over the phone that I am filing. I dont want them to get any advanced notice.

[butterflywings]

I have BofA, chase, capital one and Amer Exp. I am about three weeks late and so far chase, AE, and BofA have called. Today I finally answered the phoen and told chase to contact my lawyer. that felt good. will file next month

Were they rude? I won't tell them I am filing. I am going to tell them that I will send in the money soon to hopefully keep them at bay long enough to file.

[butterflywings]

I just posted something similar in the collections thread. We got calls almost right away. Most from HSBC, WaMu, Chase and GE Money definitely being the worst. We are also filing the end of Feb/ beginning of March so we are going to begin referring them to our lawyer. Hopefully that will slow them down a bit. I did change my ringtone to a song my kids like so at least I get to see them dance around when my phone rings- they are getting tired though.

I have heard that Chase is the worst. At least we can go thru this process together. It'll be nice having someone on here who is filing at about the same time.