stupid finance company

[brainless twit]

Just checked my husband's credit report (we're filing in the next 2 weeks). We have a loan with CitiFinancial that we are 30 days late on, and I noticed an inquiry from them EVERY DAY for the past two weeks. What is going on? Are they checking to see if we've filed, or are they just looking to bring down his credit score? They definitely play dirty; they sent us a fake attorney letter last week (the attorney doesn't exist) and they have even stopped by our house looking for payment. We've had a loan of some type with them for nearly 5 years and this is the first time we've ever been late, so I don't understand what they are trying to accomplish. Any thoughts?

[taxmom]

Oh, Citi's the worst! We had a personal loan through them several years ago, that they conveniently disguised as just a regular loan. Taught me a lesson on fine print, that's for sure! Turns out it was secured by all my household items - TVs, computers, etc. The loan itself was for like $8000, which we paid religiously for months. Then, when things went bad, and we started getting late, they hounded us. Calling hourly, leaving sticky notes on our cars, even had the manager call from his cell phone in front of our house! Absolutely crazy. We refi'd later shortly after and wanted pay off that loan. After all that time paying on it, they actually claimed we owed them MORE than what we originally financed for. I think we ended up paying them $8400 after a year of making payments!

The best part? Within 6 months of paying it off (after a screaming match with the manager about that payoff), they sent me this "Preferred Customer" type of greeting card, offering me another loan!! Yeah right....

[tradewiz50]

The scary thing is they can pull a credit report on you as much as they want. Read your card member agreement.

[brainless twit]

Another question about this... Our BK7 will be filed on Friday, and the same finance company is calling us, calling my husband's work, calling family members, etc. Is it okay to tell them to call our attorney? We've already paid his fees and the filing fees, but we're waiting on some documentation to finish out our petition. I don't plan to tell them we're filing, but just that they need to speak to our attorney about our account.

I know posters here are generally discouraged from telling creditors, but why? I want them to stop harassing us - it's one thing to call our house (we have caller ID) but it's completely different when they are calling my husband's employer and leaving embarrassing messages for him. What can we do?

[CATCHMEIFYOUCAN]

Dont Tell

Just tell them to call your attorney, they'll figure it out. When I stopped paying knowing that I was going to be filing, I would tell them over the phone, I'm not obligated to speak to you about my financial affairs, you need to call my attorney .." end of discussion (Especially since I was at work!). Another trick is, if you have still have access to your accounts on the internet, change all your contact phone numbers to your attorneys! I was in a DMP (debt management program) for a brief period, and while I still had access to my accounts on line, I changed all my contact info to the DMP's number. HAH !

Catchmeifyoucan

[bezoar]

Yes. Generally your atty should have instructed you not to speak w/ any of your creditors, only to refer them to his office. That's all part of the "service" once you have paid his/her retainer. Mine instructed me to keep a log of times, names, etc. in the event that a creditor/CA continued to call despite having been told to call my atty. I also recorded all calls (w/o their knowledge), as it was legal for me to do so in my state. Never needed them, however. All behaved fairly well once I had an atty.