What Do I Tell The Credit Card People?

[maxwellv8670]

Thank you everyone for your advice. I think I will try and keep stalling them as long as possible. I really don't know what I am worried about because it went well at the lawyers office yesterday. I don't have a job so they can't garnish a check, I'm not married, no children, and I don't have 1 thing in my name except credit card debt. The one thing I was concerned about was my IRS check that I sent off in the mail and if they could get that because that is how I am paying the lawyer and she said no and that was how a lot of people paid for BK was with that check. So glad I'm not alone.

I used to be worried about filing BK and how I would never have anything because of it. And yet here I am swamped in credit card debt and I have nothing to show for it but bills. I know this, if I get this behind me I will NEVER ever get myself in this sort of shape again. The only way I see it ever happening again will be because of medical bills and not credit cards. Thank you again for your advice!

[MarieT]

I second and third the advice-find an attorney you feel comfortable with, retain them for a small fee (mine charged $200) and start dispatching the good news.

My attorney gave me a number for my creditors to call. When I began answering the phone again, I simply listened to their query (usually "Can you pay this amount today?") and then told them that I had retained an attorney to help me with the intent of filing bankruptcy. I only had one who questioned me further, and I just said that they'd have to talk to my attorney. That was back in January. I will not be filing until August. The calls have stopped, and I have relief. I may start getting them again, if they get impatient and think their stay period is up. At that point, I will be near filing and will just refer them all again. Good system, and it allows my attorney to prepare the very best filing for me.

I am really new to this and have been on this forum all day trying to get some things figured out. I net with an attorney this week and paid $400 down and then will be $250 a month until I have paid in full for $2600. He said they cannot file until I have it paid in full but with the $400 down I am able to refer all collection calls to his office and he said it is very unlikely that the creditors will pursue garnishment or lawsuit once I have hired a BK attorney.

I am wondering if you have a pre-bankruptcy plan since you are not filing until August? I am concerned because our BEST income months every year are October through February so feel lik ewe have shot ourselves in th efoot here and we will start going into lower income months for the next 6 to seven months starting in March...usually as much as 40% less. So, I am thinking that maybe we should be more strategic with our planning since the income seems to be calculated on the last six months.

[LostNFound]

To answer your question about dealing with the creditor phone calls.....

I'm not an expert, but I have NOT paid a credit card since Feb 2009.

You should avoid the phone calls. Let your machine get it. I actually went online and changed my contact number to my cell phone so I wasn't getting 15 calls during the day. I also do daycare so the disruption was not easy for me. The change of the number helped, but I usually got 3-5 a day for a while.

If you feel you must talk to them, tell them you "do not handle financial matters over the phone, send it to me in writing". Then hang up. If you don't, they will try to get information out of you or tell you that your statement is "in writing" so you should talk to them.

Avoiding them is really the best thing for you. IMO, but I'm not an expert! ha!

[BrokeOR]

Yes, we have a plan. Our attorney listened to our situation, and advised us to file in August so that it would give us the 6 month "look back" that was most favorable to Chapter 7 and leave out a couple of months where our income was artificially high. We retained out attorney the first part of January, started referring creditors to their office the next day and haven't heard anything since.

When you accept that you are financially insolvent, the tendency (at least for me) was to get it all over with quickly. But my attorney kept stressing that there is no hurry, and that we should wait to file until it was best for us. Perhaps your attorney would tell you something different, but I know of people who retained, then waited a YEAR to file due to the complexity of their case and some outcomes they were waiting for.

[drowningNdebt]

change your number. that's what i did and everything was resolved. however, when i did get the calls i use to just mess with them. tell them a story and not make a commitment although i got tired of using up all the minutes on my cell so i changed numbers.

[OhioFiler]

I am really new to this and have been on this forum all day trying to get some things figured out. I net with an attorney this week and paid $400 down and then will be $250 a month until I have paid in full for $2600. He said they cannot file until I have it paid in full but with the $400 down I am able to refer all collection calls to his office and he said it is very unlikely that the creditors will pursue garnishment or lawsuit once I have hired a BK attorney.

I am wondering if you have a pre-bankruptcy plan since you are not filing until August? I am concerned because our BEST income months every year are October through February so feel lik ewe have shot ourselves in th efoot here and we will start going into lower income months for the next 6 to seven months starting in March...usually as much as 40% less. So, I am thinking that maybe we should be more strategic with our planning since the income seems to be calculated on the last six months.

Will it make a difference? If you still qualify using the larger income months you won't have to wait.

If you do have to wait, it's not a big deal. Like LostnFound, we haven't paid any unsecured creditors in over a year and only one has so far sued us. That action came in November and the trial date is set for mid-April. We'll be filing in early April.

[ryan]

That's really an issue of outlook and understanding the process. The collectors can't do anything to you. They have zero power in the equation. Until a debt is actually in the judicial system these clowns only have the power you choose to allow them to have.

Once one understands the collector has no power it becomes very easy to make a game of it which is much less stressful than worrying oneself senseless for no real reason.

At least in my case that has proved to be good advice.

I haven't found any of my many creditors to be unreasonable to talk to.
Even the most aggressive one (Discover) is really more a matter of the individual you happen to get on that particular call than anything.

I do exactly what OhioFiler says, I guess it comes easier because I enjoy talking to people, BUT I carefully reveal nothing of any value.

No incomes, no bank accts, no POE, etc. I seriously and dramatically describe how bad my situation is financially - which it is- and they usually finish up by saying something like, "well, we hope things improve for you soon."....and some then even turn off the calls for a week or two.

This is with 2 CA's and a bunch of OC's calling, and has been this way for almost 5 months. YMMV.

[hedgecat]

You're close enough to filing that unless you are being sued, can't you just ignore them? I screened my calls and the day I filed, I CALLED the worst ones and gave them my case number. Everything stopped from there on out.

[jamesd1967]

send them a cease and desist letter. Right there, that is something telling them to get lost. It doesn't erase your debt, but at that point they are not supposed to call you any longer.

[lalap123]

Ryan - my experience has been similar to yours. I really never got a rude creditor from the time I stopped paying (January 2009) until I retained an attorney (May 2009). In the beginning I stupidly did talk to them and tell them my whole sordid story about no job, not enough money,etc. I'm sure they would have gotten worse the longer I'd let it go on, but once I retained last May I basically have gotten zero calls, and I just filed last month. I made it more than a year without getting sued and around eight months with basically no phone calls/harassment.

During the time I was getting phone calls I actually went out and purchased a pre-paid cell phone and changed my number with everyone. That way I didn't have to get stressed out about getting collection calls on my home or cell phone when others were around (like my in-laws!)

[maxwellv8670]

Thanks for all the sound advice! This forum has been a tremendous help. I got a call yesterday from one of the credit card people that actually left a message stating this was the last day that she would be handling my account. So not sure what that means. I have a feeling it means that they are sending it to collections? Oh well.

[flyinbroke]

The prepaid cell has been a Godsend for me. I get NO calls at my home or my private cell. All credit card calls go to this number, and the phone cost me 14.99.