Telling Collection Agencies You're Filing Bankrupsy

[loveends1981]

When is it best to tell Collection Agencies that you're filing for bankruptsy?

We have already paid our lawyer, a month ago. Gave him everthing he needs, as far as paper work goes. Tuesday, April 27th we go to get our bankrupsy certificate.

Is it ok to tell the companies about filing for bankrupsy even if our lawyer hasnt mentioned about us having a case number yet?

[okiebk09]

Yup I would tell them if you have retained an attorney. That is what you are paying them for. Good luck.

[loveends1981]

I got ahold of one credit card company this evening and told them.
I dont have a case number to give them, but gave our attourneys name and number.
Our attourney told my husband that when it comes to collection agencies that we should wait to have a case number to give them to tell them we are filing for bankrupsy, and not tell them before. But we paid our attourney almost a month ago. The more I kept thinking about it, why should we pay our attourney and keep up with the stupid calls, when we can just tell them of our attourney and go from there.

My mom tried to tell me if I told the companies about filing for bankrupsy before we had a case number, that the companies could do something to make it so we cant include that money in the bankrupsy! I am so new to this! I just want to make sure if we give out our attourney's name and number that the companies cant do something so we cant include them in the bankrupsy.

[eddiep]

My attorney told me to give all my creditors his name and number. I did as he told me back in february, nothing bad has happened so far, the annoying calls have stopped.

[eddiep]

Is your checking/savings account with a bank that you owe money to? They can and will take money out of your account to repay the debt, without telling you. If you do you have to take your money out and open an account with another bank.

[loveends1981]

No, we dont owe money to the bank that we have our checking and savings account with.

[Floridagail]

Did you remove all bank account numbers from any online payment accounts. ALso any Cbr numbers , I failed to remove a CBR and they called my bf cell phone and passed along to diff collection agents. Also do not give out your tel number to store when they ask, like Sears, best buy have a habit of doing.My bf gave Sears our new number and wow within a week the calls started again. Do not know how they found out about it. It was not on our credit bureaus.

[willbfree]

Floridagail I purchased a MagicJack and for every business that needs our phone number like Sears, Best Buy, or even online purchases that require a phone number at checkout I give out that MagicJack number. Only friends and family have our real phone number now. (We changed our phone number after filing Ch 7 and made it a private number.) Those creditor calls convinced me that I needed to find a way to never give out our primary number again to any business or bank. If I need to contact a bank or business I make sure to use the MagicJack line for all calls. For $20 a year it ensures I will always have peace and quiet. You can find MagicJack at RadioSh*ck or online.

[loveends1981]

Did you remove all bank account numbers from any online payment accounts. ALso any Cbr numbers , I failed to remove a CBR and they called my bf cell phone and passed along to diff collection agents. Also do not give out your tel number to store when they ask, like Sears, best buy have a habit of doing.My bf gave Sears our new number and wow within a week the calls started again. Do not know how they found out about it. It was not on our credit bureaus.

we paid all of our credit cards with a check each month. So far I havnt seen them take anything from our checking or savings. We stopped making payments to the credit cards in October 2008.

[Beedlebrow]

Once we paid our attorney his first installment he said we should tell any creditors that contacted us that we were filing, and refer them to him.
We did not call our creditors, just waited for their call.
We weren't filing for 6 months, so no case number.
Whenthey called, I told them we were filing, and gave them the attorney's contact info, told them that all further inquiries have to go through him, and not to contact us again.
A couple tried to get some info, like when we were going to file, which chapter would it be, etc.
I gave the same answer every time "my attorney will be able to answer that for you".
It's the easiest way to handle it, and that's one of the reasons you pay for an attorney.

Edit* I thought I'd add that we did have one unusual occurance. When I tried to give American Express our attorney's info, they went into the buddy routine, saying we shouldn't file, they could help us, etc.
Each time I tried to politely cut them off and give them the attorney's info, they'd launch into a different version of their spiel.
Finally, I said "you're wasting my time, do you have a pen ready to take down the info?".
And they hung up on me.
Suprised the heck out of me.