recording collection calls

[Mi Bankruptcy]

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.

Now that is pretty cool. I'll have to remember that. That would have been nice to set up from the start. Luckily I have been bugged that much.

[Doghouse]

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.

I checked this out too and looks like a pretty cool service. I guess Google bought 'em last year. However they are not currently accepting new members and apparently have not accepted new members since March '07.

[Intoodeep80]

MiBankruptcy- you are one clever devil

Ive been telling creditors for months about me filing bankruptcy, and have gone through the same thing (them asking what chapter, them calling persistently even though several times Ive given the same creditor my lawyers info).

Im going out tonight and buying a mini recorder and will start documenting the calls. They call me at work, although several times Ive told them not to or I will get fired. They still call 2-3x a day. They have my lawyers info.

I like the script too. Im going to use it tomorrow (They ALWAYS call on Sunday).

I wanted to add too. I just received as a gift 2 panasonic cordless phones from Target. They have talking caller ID and the ability to "block" certain calls (up to 20 I believe). Ive already added most of the repeat agency calls. It will ring once, and then give a busy signal. NICE feature.

[ready2puke]

Is that a good idea to have them get a busy signal? Or does it matter?

[debtmonster]

I don't care what noise they get, as long as the collection agencies and creditors go directly to voice mail and my phone doesn't have to ring over it. It's a shame that GrandCentral.com closed the doors to new signups. I got very lucky to find out about it. A friend of mine gave me an invite back in 2006 for it.

All of my family, friends and anyone I know has this number. If anyone starts to annoy me, I log in and check the button next to their name that says "send all calls to voice mail." I would gladly pay $10/mo. for a service like this. I've been using it to call all over the US and Canada for free.

When I need to call somebody and want my GrandCentral number to show up on their Caller ID, I log into GrandCentral and click their name in the address book. Then I click the "Call" button. It then prompts me with all of my phones to call from... house phone, cell phone, Magicjack.com phone, or whatever phone # I added. Then when I click the number, it calls me back at the phone # of my choice, typically my land line. I answer and then I hear the phone ringing as they 3-way the call for me. My real home phone # and real cellphone # is NEVER given on the Caller ID. The GrandCentral acts as my "firewall" to the caller. I would imagine this would be great to have for an ex-boyfriend/girlfriend. If you got tired of them, you simply click "Block" next to their name. The next time they call back, they get an automated message saying that your phone was disconnected. Their name shows up in your call log when you log in, but your phone never rings and they can never leave a voice mail. And the sweet thing is that you really didn't have to go and change your phone # and you didn't have to go and tell tons of people your new phone #. I can keep this GrandCentral number no matter how many times I move. If I move to another state, I simply log in and program in my new land line phone #.

I absolutely love this service. It's a real shame that the phone company does not offer all of the stuff that GrandCentral does. These people absolutely ROCK! You can "stick it to 'em!" and right back at those multi-billion dollar, rich creditors who have been shafting all of us with high interest over the years while their CEO live in multi-million dollar mansions and make millions per year in a salary. I don't feel sorry for any of them. I love anyone who files Chapter 7 on these bozo's.

[Intoodeep80]

Debtmonster, can you "invite" me to that grandcentral service? It says I can only use it if Im invited.

[debtmonster]

I've been looking into it and it appears that they have suspended the invites. I have numerous friends who are also looking to use it. This sucks.

[GoingDown]

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.

That sounds like a useful service. Is there any way to send all "Unavailable" callers to a cell phone? If so, I could get another cheapy pay as you go cell phone and have all of those calls routed to it, and just turn it off and never have to hear from another "unavailable" phone call again. That would be cool. Most debt collectors show up as "unavailable" on my Caller I.D. box.

[debtmonster]

That sounds like a useful service. Is there any way to send all "Unavailable" callers to a cell phone? If so, I could get another cheapy pay as you go cell phone and have all of those calls routed to it, and just turn it off and never have to hear from another "unavailable" phone call again. That would be cool. Most debt collectors show up as "unavailable" on my Caller I.D. box.

We got "Anonymous Call Rejection" on our land line. People who call our # and don't include the Caller ID, it plays them a recorded message telling them to release the number. The calls never go through. I love it! It's great for telemarketers and bill collectors who block the Caller ID.

With Grand Central, they have multiple categories. You can also enter in many of your phone numbers for each call to ring to. They have an "Other" category that all calls not in your address book go to. Once you have the Caller ID set up in the address book, you can assign them to a category and route which phone they ring. If you have a home phone, an office phone, a cell phone and your spouse's cell phone, you can route the call to a single or all of the phones simultaneously. When the person calls, it can ring one or all of your phones you have selected for that person's # based on their Caller ID. The first phone you answer, Grand Central lets you know a call is coming in. You can press "1" to answer the call, "2" to send to voice mail or "3" to send to voice mail and listen in on the call. You can then intercept the call while they are leaving a voice mail if you so desire.

[GoingDown]

I think this is finally the solution to most of the problems with debt collectors.

And it's free!

I went on the Grandcentral.com website and requested a reservation for a phone number in my area code. Once they start letting new people in, I'm planning on using this service for all of my phones.

Thanks for the information!

[debtmonster]

I wonder if they stopped the invites because people were using it to firewall debt collectors?