recording collection calls

[justbroke]

I just added a call screener which I can manipulate. It actually makes an announcement stating that calls may be monitored or recorded.

[Mi Bankruptcy]

I have not been recording these calls because I hadn't planned on answering until next week when I purchased the recording stuff from Radio Shack. However, One creditor called my mother-in law and one called my work for my wife (BOA). So, I started testing this out and will get an actual recorder this weekend.

[Mi Bankruptcy]

I have used my script for two days and already my phones are very quite.. It's almost disturbingly quite. My wife loved the script and it, It help realize when to hung up. She always gave the creditors our atty information. Chase was the only one so far to say they can not talk to a 3rd party about you debt. My wife said you have my attorney information.. Goodbye.

She called me today and said.. I can't believe I have not received one call today. ;o)

[ready2puke]

Wow quiet aye?? My phone has been ringing non stop these days. Now Im getting different numbers with diff. area codes. Once in a while they will leave a message got one from Chase yest for the first time. Am X is on a roll every hour on the hour whether I need it or not lol...Citi too..no mail at all yet At least Im keeping someone working.

[Andyman]

He then tried to get slick and ask what Chapter I was in.

You should have said, "I'm in Chapter 41 and if you'd stop calling then maybe I can finish it"!

[paintinrosesred]

That's funny!!

[debtmonster]

I don't even want these calls when they start. We've been paid up on everything until this month. This month we defaulted on the car, the mortgage, the home owner's insurance, Radio Shack, Best Buy, AMEX, Dillards and a couple others.

I have wrote them all letters and mailed them today letting them know we're in the process of going bankrupt and for them to contact our attorney regarding the account. Hopefully they will call the attorney, verify that I am indeed filing Chapter 7 and then mark the account accordingly to pause the phone calls for now.

We have changed our phone #'s so many times (not because of creditors, but because we changed cell phone carriers so many times), so I would think 90% of the people don't have a current phone # for us anyway. But if they somehow manage to look up our current phone #, I don't want the phone to ring 60 times per day. This will bring out my Type-A personality and my blood pressure will go to the moon.

[TEW]

I never bothered to come up with a tactical plan to record or document creditor calls I guess I had way too many other things to do like make sure my petition was being filed right. They had every right to call me since I stopped paying my bills. But after I filed with in 3 days the calls were down to almost nothing. I answered every call I got and gave them the information and that was the last I herd from them. I don’t think the system the court uses is fool proof so I think some of the notifications don’t get to where they need to be. I didn’t think I needed to get hostile with some guy on the other end of the phone that was just trying to put food on the table just like everyone else I know.

[Mi Bankruptcy]

Years ago after coming out of the service I lost my job and was having trouble paying my bills. I know how ruthless and mean these collectors can be. Yes, they have the right to call you. They do not have the right to belittle or try to intimidate you. Several filers can't afford to file right away and may only be able to come up with enough to make a partial payment to retain an attorney and may have to wait three or even four months after they decide to file.

The script helps you and also helps the individual calling you. The script is to the point and leaves very little room for admitting guilt or allowing any type of confrontation. This is a part of the over all plan and is the simplest part of the plan.

[GoingDown]

You are right! I am going to record the conversations now. My 2nd mortgage peole keep calling me and when I ask them if they have the information, they say yes. And I ssay well then call the attorney they say fine and then 2 hours later the same thing. So now I will record and then my attorney said we can sue them for 1000.00.

A lot of what is happening is the people in charge of the collection agency or collections department are not removing your phone number from the computer dialer. They may be slow at reacting to the information, but most likely, it is on purpose. The computer is what calls you, and then when you pick up the phone, the computer patches you through to the next available live collection agent. The collection agents really have no control over it and don't care one way or the other.

After their legal department gets the official notice from bankruptcy court they will remove the number from their computer dialer. Until then, they probably don't care what you say. They seem to keep calling until they get that document in the mail.

[debtmonster]

After their legal department gets the official notice from bankruptcy court they will remove the number from their computer dialer. Until then, they probably don't care what you say. They seem to keep calling until they get that document in the mail.

They're all getting a document in the mail from me. I've been giving them all written notice for them to contact my lawyer from this point on regarding the said account.

Then the next notice they will get will be from the court (if all goes well.)

[Doghouse]

So far I have avoided the collection callers by not answering their calls. After my last payments and before I started defaulting, I went online and deleted my cell or work number and changed the phone numbers on all of my accounts to my home number (which is usually then forwarded to my cell phone). Then I disabled the call forwarding and just let my home answering machine pick up all my calls. I use and receive most of my calls on my cell phone anyway.

Today alone after returning from work, as of 5:30 PST, Citibank has called me 12 times. They started calling at 8:03 am. And I only have two cards with 11K owed them. Yet I owe B of A about 49K and they've only called me twice all month. That may increase as I don't expect to pay anyone the rest of this year till I file next year.

[allavdj]

AMEX would call me every hour and if I didn't answer the phone they would call my parents, work, and sometimes my brother (that lives about 6 hours from me and has absolutely nothing to do with anything other than he's my brother).

I would say Citibank was the worst though. I was thrilled when they finally charged it off. They would literally call every 10-15 minutes starting at 8AM and then promptly stop at 9PM. I had my cell phone powered off for almost 2 months because of those bastards.

[Mi Bankruptcy]

Wow..these every 15 minute calls are plain harassment. Once I used my script Citi, chase, BOA & HSBC stopped calling me and my wife. We have yet to file( waiting to review & sign the final paper work). Even though I never recorded a call( I might after my 341). I think it really did make an impact.

As I said above I only received one call to other places. One was to my work and one was to my mother in- laws. This was why I started answering the calls and using my script. So, in the end. If you can retain an attorney and have to wait to file.. I believe this is the best option.. at least for 3-4 months. We do periodically receive recorded calls.

BTW.. These companies never had my Cell.. They had my wifes. We don't have a land line. I got a new job after 10 years and they didn't have my new work number (they did find it)

[debtmonster]

None of my creditors have my land line or my wife's new cellphone. I signed up with Grandcentral.com and everyone has that phone number. Grandcentral acts as a traffic cop for phone calls. You can route the calls to different phones and have different outgoing messages based on the Caller ID. You can also set it so that all calls from a given number on the Caller ID go straight to voice mail without even ringing your phone. It's AWESOME. So if I have a friend who calls me on my Grand Central number, Grand Central will forward it to my cellphone. If one of my wife's friends calls, instead of ringing my phone, it will only ring her cellphone. I can also have customized outgoing messages based on friends, family, work or others. It's the coolest phone service I've ever seen in my life. ANYONE in the middle of a bankruptcy should us this service.

So when HSBC keeps calling me with their auto dialer, I don't even know. They just show up as missed calls in Grand Central's call log since all of them are programmed to go right to voice mail. If they become too much of a pest, I can simply click the "block" botton next to them and the next time they call, they will get a message that my phone # has been disconnected.