Brand new. Filing in MA. I have questions...

[creditguy]

Interesting site there LimpDisc.

I looked up my name and found relatives I didn't even know existed....interesting since there are probably less than 300 people with my last name. None of my "immediate family" was listed....

You asked if I have ever filled out an application that asked for the nearest friend or relative. Nearest relative yes...friend no. My wife was always the response so in efffect they would always get me anyway.

Spagal if you are really worried about this why don't you just not answer the first few times(which will probably be 30 days after you have not paid) and then tell them you are going to file BK and have/or have not retained an attorney.
IMO this is being made into a bigger deal than it really is. You are only going to be 90 days late it sounds like.

[LimpDisc]

Try to do one on "Smith" , "Jones", "Kaplan", "Hall" or some similar search and see how long it takes to find your deadbeat debtor !

Add in the first name, middle name or initial, city and state.

One minute or less.

[LimpDisc]

IMO this is being made into a bigger deal than it really is.

You are correct. But I just want the OP to understand that the possibility exists.

[Spagal]

Thank you both for your insights. Yes I will be just over 90 days late when I file, and not with every creditor. Some have already been paid for Jan before I decided to do this so...60-90 days and I will just tell them I have retained an atty and will be filling for BK.

[tlcabk]

Credit Guy: Unfortunately I can attest to the fact that you are misinformed as I was. I thought the same way that you did until I found out that they actually called my mother (the whole reason they ask for a relative not living with you) Years ago when things were good I didn't think anything of what this was for.

They called my mothers house looking for my father (who died in 1993),
They called my brothers EX wife who is now remarried moved and has new address and phone number, yet they tracked her down.
They called my husband's family members looking to contact us and
The final straw was when they called my next door neighbor who other than happening to live next door has NO connections to me and told them they needed to reach me immeditaly about a very important matter. Even though they can't tell them it's a debt, it was Discover Credit card and Bank of America RV loan that did all this and it shows up on caller id who is calling so do the math.

So yes credit card companies and Banks CAN, WILL and DO these things. It was so embarrasing, I wish now that I had just answered the hone and gave them a standard response of "sorry, were having financial difficulties feel free to call me next month to see if things have changed.'

[creditguy]

tlcabk:

Sorry to hear about that.
Were you more than 90 days late?
Did you provide the companies with all these people to contact?

I have never heard of this happening in 90 days but I guess anything can happen. If I were inclined to repay a creditor and just fell behind a couple of months these tactics would push me into the "screw 'em" camp.

[music12]

creditguy, it is very clear from tlcabk's post that he never provided the names of any of those people except perhaps his mother. these companies have databases.

some posters here said some cc companies started calling them a few days after the first missed payment. i don't remember the name of the company. you'll find it if you search the forums.

[creditguy]

"some posters here said some cc companies started calling them a few days after the first missed payment."

I can see that happening these days. That is different than calling mother, brother etc. after being less than 90 days late.

I guess after reading some of these posts on this thread and others I should thank God Almighty that none of this stuff happened to me! THANKS GOD!

Where did you see in her post that she never provided the contact names to the creditors? I missed that.

[tlcabk]

No I never added these people to any of my information (with exception of my mother possibly) Definately NEVER my sister in law and as I said, the neighbors have NO connection to me. They started calling after 60 days. What really upset me with BOA who called the neighbors is that we had just spoken to them the day before and had been discussing with them to see if they wanted us to voluntarily surrender the RV and they were trying to talk us into keeping it and trying to make some arrangements to catch up the payments. Apparently the departments don't speak to each other.

Every person's situation is different, but in hind sight, I would say the less embarrassing route would be to anser their calls with a generic response and hang up.

And I agree : When my neighbors came to give me the message, I called BOA chewed them out and I told them that since they did that then they could go fly a kite.

[creditguy]

WOW....sorry again that this happened to you. That is probably worse than having your name thrown in the local newspaper or legal publication....at least you hope no one read the paper that day.

Well Spagal...pick up the phone!