When did you stop paying and/or using your CC?

[GWBcasualty]

My added $0.02.:

Many people try to stop using the credit card for any type of spending 2 months prior.... but check the law. Others have commented wisely above.

One point... if you "can make it in 2009" as you said, then you may not be able to show (prove to Trustee) that you are indeed "negative" on your I and J scheds... and thus not a Ch 7 case. Might want to think about that.

That would depend if business gets better (doubt it...). On the other hand, if business does get better, I may not qualify for Ch. 7... that is a GREAT point that I must consider.

Right now maybe I am in a position to do the best of the bad economy as I have no equity in the house and our household income fell just enough to qualify for Ch.7.

[debtmonster]

The next 3 months were the hardest, constant ringing of the phone. Have caller ID so we just learned to ignore it. No more than 2 weeks after filing the phone fell silent.

I had HSBC call me 8x in one day from multiple 800 #'s.

I changed my outgoing message on my voice mail system to tell all bill collectors that I am going bankrupt. I gave my bankruptcy attorney's contact information on the outgoing message. I put a pause at the beginning of the outgoing message so that their auto dialers would get a real person to break in and hear the message. It worked. After one call to my machine, they haven't called back one single time. They obviously got the bankruptcy information and went on their own merry way.

I started the out going message with "Hello? <long pause so that the auto dialers will think a real person answered.> Then a general message saying, "All bill collectors, we are in the process of going bankrupt. Please contact my attorney XYZ at 999-999-9999, yadda yadda yadda"

My phone service allows me to have a customized outgoing message based on the number coming in from the Caller ID. I logged in and changed all of my bill collectors to go to this message while all friends, family and others got my standard outgoing message.

TECHNOLOGY IS GREAT, ISN'T IT?!?!!

Going bankrupt on 62 different people for $360,000 and my phone doesn't ring not ONE TIME ALL DAY from a bill collector!!!!

I LOVE IT!!!

I am trying to live up to my username on here.

[momof4angles]

Stopped paying in September, I get about 20 calls a day mostly from GEmoney. I plan on filing next month. I never wanted it to come to this but what can you do we can't control the economy.

[debtmonster]

Stopped paying in September, I get about 20 calls a day mostly from GEmoney. I plan on filing next month. I never wanted it to come to this but what can you do we can't control the economy.

Get User-Call-Forwarding. They should have a service where the number will ring your house once or so to give you time to look at the Caller ID. Don't answer the phone and let the call forward to the FCC or FTC so that way those people can see how much you're actually being harrassed. Or forward the calls to a disconnected number so that way they will think you disconnected your # and then they will remove your number from their auto dialer.

[rockyroad]

GW...I have a SP biz too. If over 50% of your debt is biz debt you can file a non-consumer Chapter 7. You will not be subject to the means test.
This is what I will file when I'm ready.

[nervousss]

I am a bit of an odd case because I stopped paying as soon as I decided to file... which was almost two years before I actually did! I couldn't afford to file until then. I am glad I stopped paying and therefore adding more debt, continuing the mad cycle I was on. I learned to live on a realistic budget for the first time in my life, and now the horror is almost over.

I was a bit lucky with the phonecall thing because I work nights. I turn my ringer off during the day so I can sleep. I know I got loads of calls, but I was never bothered by them because I rarely heard them. I did talk to people once in a while, but mostly, I slept! I got offered a few pretty sweet deals near the end, but I couldn't afford the lump sums.

I never had anyone sue me in those two years fyi. I owed about $30k in the end, spread between four credit cards. My relatively "low" balances on each of them might be why they didn't bother. I probably just got lucky though. Who knows.

I am so excited to finally get my life back on track... to finish college, which I had to put on hold to manage my debt.

I hope you don't have to file, but if you do, just know that it wasn't as horrible as I thought it would be.