I Can't Believe This Happened!

[Dollar Bill]

I plan to file c7 soon.

I am/was a very PROUD person. I received a message from my mother in law today on my cell phone. NATIONWIDE CREDIT called their house trying to collect from me. LORD HAVE MERCY. HOW DID THEY GET THEIR NUMBER. I HAVE NEVER IN MY LIFE USED IT FOR ANY REASON. NOT EVEN ON SOME OLD APP SEVEN YEARS AGO...NEVER!!

I thought I was dreaming.

My wife and I used to think that she (wife) should file BK along with me because one of the worst things that could happen would be creditors/collections calling the inlaws house for her.

Needless to say it happened today, and I haven't even filed yet.

The agent told her that I gave them her number as a second contact for me....total BS.

The last thing I want is for them to be concerened about our financial well being.

Has anyone experienced this? After filing the C7 they are sppose to stop...has anyone ever had them continue to call afterards?

[ameliabedilia]

how long before you file? or have you retained an attorney- can't you forward everything to him or her before they call again?

That stinks!

[danaf]

yup - I posted about it in collections. The creditors have started calling my mil's house and how they connected me their I have no idea. And no doubt they are calling my parent's home as well, and God only knows who else. They are frustrated cause' they are unable to reach me directly. They call me all day long at work but I don't answer. I'm not about to have any conversations with them from my place of employment.

Oh well - what can I do? I told my mil about this so she is cool.

It will stop after you file. Don't stress out. But do expect them to call anyone they can.

[Dollar Bill]

how long before you file? or have you retained an attorney- can't you forward everything to him or her before they call again?

That stinks!

Well...after that message I immediately stoped by my CPA's office picked up my state return...drove straight home...grabbed my wife and drove 30 miles to the atty's office I planned to retain. I just showed up. No appt!

I had another post on here that touched on my anxiety over filing. I didn't want to retain anyone yet...blah blah blah. After that message all of my plans changed for the day! I have no retain an atty and plan to file within two weeks.

My mil still doesn't have the full story. maybe one day. They are very understanding folks.

[epiphany]

I plan to file c7 soon.

I am/was a very PROUD person. I received a message from my mother in law today on my cell phone. NATIONWIDE CREDIT called their house trying to collect from me. LORD HAVE MERCY. HOW DID THEY GET THEIR NUMBER. I HAVE NEVER IN MY LIFE USED IT FOR ANY REASON. NOT EVEN ON SOME OLD APP SEVEN YEARS AGO...NEVER!!

I thought I was dreaming.

My wife and I used to think that she (wife) should file BK along with me because one of the worst things that could happen would be creditors/collections calling the inlaws house for her.

Needless to say it happened today, and I haven't even filed yet.

The agent told her that I gave them her number as a second contact for me....total BS.

The last thing I want is for them to be concerened about our financial well being.

Has anyone experienced this? After filing the C7 they are sppose to stop...has anyone ever had them continue to call afterards?

Same exact thing happened to me. Collection agency (after I had ignored numerous phone calls from them in a week period) called my sister in law and told them that I had given that number as a second contact. Nuh, uh. Never ever used my brother or her for any reference. Someone explained to me that they may have used what is known as skip tracing. I still don't fully understand it.

I was very upset and new to the whole BK thing. I sent them a cease and desist and requested debt validation. Original creditor was HSCB. I never received a validation or heard anything more from that credit agency. HSCB then placed my account with a collection law firm.

I received a dunning letter from them, in which they acknowledged the cease and desist. I requested validation from them and about six weeks later, without validation again, I got a letter from them saying they were going to sue me if I didn't pay up within 5 days of the letter...the same day I received it.

Anyway, I just called them Monday and told them of my BK but they said they could not speak to me because of my cease and desist on file. I asked if I could send them an email and they said yes. I sent them an email with my BK info. I know that email does not protect me like a certified letter would but I am filing in a couple weeks so am not going to sweat it. Dunno if they will still sue me or not. I looked up this law firm on the web and they have pages and pages of FDCPA violations racked up, including violating the automatic stay.

I guess the point to my story is, I wish I had not ignored the phone calls in the first place. I have since gotten three other calls from different collection agencies. Terrified that a relative would be contacted, I called each immediately and let them know of my BK. I also told them that they cannot call me at work or contact any friend or relative because they indeed have my correct contact information since they were speaking to me. All three told me they would not be contacting me again and they haven't.

PS--the collection agency can only call others in order to locate you. They may not tell them who they are, unless the person on the other end of the phone asks them if they are a debt collector, and they may not discuss the debt. Did they tell your mother who they were or what their purpose was, or did you call the number and figure it out? If they told your mother in law that they were Nationwide Credit without her asking and/or why they were calling, they were violating the FDCPA. My sister in law was given the name (first name of collection agent) and number, but had no idea why they were calling, thank goodness.

Good Luck. I know exactly how you feel.

ep

[Dollar Bill]

Thanks for the reply.

YES...they told her that she was betty *** from Nationwide Credit calling for me. Lefft her number and extension.

I still can't believe this happened.

Thanks for your story.

[ssdsco]

Question for those that had calls from collection agencies to relatives, friends or nieghbors. Did your phone greeting clearly identify your first and last name and matched your credit card info ?

Thanks

[justplaintired]

So if you answer those calls will that not try to contact relatives? I have been answering all those calls just so they won't call our family. Will that stop them from doing that? Lord I hope so, as we are not telling our family, they totally wouldn't understand!

[Dollar Bill]

Justplaintired....I understand.

The mil and fil are understanding.

The sil and her hubby wouldn't. The hubby would probably stick his chest out as if he and I played some sort of success game and he won. The other sil really wouldn't understand because she's young and I feels thinks the world of me. Same for the brother.

I do believe though someday they will find out... after I tell them that is. But even that will be after we've created very strong financial foundation and are living some of our dreams.

[stephanie4686]

I had collectors call my neighbors once and ask them to give me message. What pr*cks. That was one company I was glad to include in my bk. To be honest, I have a friend who is in collections and she says she calls numbers all the time with no real idea if they are the actual individual they are looking for. If you aren't ready to tell the family, I would just plead the fifth. I was so happy to file bk, for the first time, I wasn't scared to answer my phone. I would get maybe 8-10 calls a day from bill collectors, and it is nice to know that when the phone rings, it is someone I want to talk to (unless it's a telemarketer) lol.

[blaze]

gosh it feels good to know i am not the only one stressing over this kind of thing! when we were getting ready to file one of the reasons i wanted to hurry up is i thought the worst thing would be for a cc company or CA to call my family - as far as I know that did not happen - but even worse - we had someone sue us and the way i found out was my 10 year old child came home from school and said "look mommy there is a note from the sherriff on the front door - are you going to jail!" - i can't tell you how fast we moved on making sure we filed that week! I guess the sherriff came to serve us with papers and we were not here - who knows how many neighbors saw it! I am past the point of caring any more though - I just want to start over. I feel like a whole new person without the constant phone calls and trying to figure out how to rob peter and pay paul. I am finally geting back to enjoying raising my kids again without constant mental anguish. Thanks for all the stories - It DOES feel good to know you're not the only one going through this ?*&! - and it makes me SO determined to correct our mistakes and NEVER end up here again.

[epiphany]

So if you answer those calls will that not try to contact relatives? I have been answering all those calls just so they won't call our family. Will that stop them from doing that? Lord I hope so, as we are not telling our family, they totally wouldn't understand!

Well, nothing is written in stone but I believe staying in contact greatly reduces the chances of them contacting someone else. They have no reason to call others if you verify that they have your correct contact information. Most of them call others because they are trying to locate you. I tell all of them, even though only the one contacted a relative, that I want it in my file "that you are not to contact me at work or any person that I know because you obviously have my correct contact information."

If I have another one call a relative, I will not hesitate to send another cease and desist. Like you, I can't have that.

You can look all over this forum and find lots of different opinions about whether or not to stay in contact with the creditors and/or tell them of your BK, but I have found that both the collection agencies and original creditors that I have told of my intention to file, have all left me alone after that....with the exception of B of A, who is still trying to talk me out of it, but they aren't being nasty. About 2/3 of my 25 creditors know now.

That's just my experience. Your mileage may vary.

ep

[epiphany]

Question for those that had calls from collection agencies to relatives, friends or nieghbors. Did your phone greeting clearly identify your first and last name and matched your credit card info ?

Thanks

No, mine did not and I changed it quickly after that happened. That is a good point to make to those worried about this. Make sure that your voicemail/machine greeting clearly states your first and last name so the agency knows that the phone number they are calling is YOURS.

As an aside, the collection agencies all leave the same message:

THIS MESSAGE IS FOR EPIPHANY POO. IF YOU ARE NOT EPIPHANY POO, PLEASE HANG UP NOW. BY CONTINUING TO LISTEN TO THIS MESSAGE, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU ARE EPIPHANY POO. yada yada yada blah blah blah.
I call these back immediately.

ep

[aachudneymiles]

I plan to file c7 soon.

I am/was a very PROUD person. I received a message from my mother in law today on my cell phone. NATIONWIDE CREDIT called their house trying to collect from me. LORD HAVE MERCY. HOW DID THEY GET THEIR NUMBER. I HAVE NEVER IN MY LIFE USED IT FOR ANY REASON. NOT EVEN ON SOME OLD APP SEVEN YEARS AGO...NEVER!!

I thought I was dreaming.

My wife and I used to think that she (wife) should file BK along with me because one of the worst things that could happen would be creditors/collections calling the inlaws house for her.

Needless to say it happened today, and I haven't even filed yet.

The agent told her that I gave them her number as a second contact for me....total BS.

The last thing I want is for them to be concerened about our financial well being.

Has anyone experienced this? After filing the C7 they are sppose to stop...has anyone ever had them continue to call afterards?

It was this one company they knew every ones number and they would call and get smart, family wouldn't give them our new number --ohh this went on for ?!?! about 5 months. I was so embarrassed, still am

[Dollar Bill]

Does anyone remember the commercial when the telemarketer wakes the guy up early in the morning. It pisses the guy off and he gets out of bed, fly's to the telemarketers city with the phone in hand, goes to his building where he is still on the phone with the guy....so on and so forth. It was so funny.....I WISH I COULD DO THAT. I WOULDN'T FIGHT OR HURT ANYONE, I WOULD JUST GIVE THEM A MOUTH FULL.