How long ignoring phone calls?

[Pizza]

Citi and Chase would call every 5 minutes at times, never longer than an hour apart, and from morning to night every day including Sundays. No messages ever. We couldn't talk to anyone on the phone without one of them beeping in. We eventually just got rid of the land line.

[fooked]

it's getting annoying over here too... Capital One even called my work phone... PITA

[bklawn]

Yea, I have caller ID block and I can also block up to 12 numbers.. nice and quite at the house. Also chanced my number several months ago to my cell number.. They are blowing it up.. My cell phone has a way to keep unlisted numbers that are not in my contact list from calling. so I can kill all of the calls if I wont too.

[WhatMoney]

It has been exactly FOUR years since the calls started. My telephone log shows over 5000 calls. I have never spoken to a single one of them. TraySoft PhoneTray takes care of them. Have yet to be sued. I must not be too appealing on paper.

[Pizza]

I did have one creditor I responded to by mail. I told them to look up my house on Google Earth and take a gander at this crappy neighborhood and the house I live in. Never heard from them again.

[albacore44]

I did have one creditor I responded to by mail. I told them to look up my house on Google Earth and take a gander at this crappy neighborhood and the house I live in. Never heard from them again.

I should tell the to look at Zillow and compare it to what my credit report shows I owe on my mortgages and they would see i'm $250K upside down

[lindsay2181]

I have been getting calls for about 6 months now. I usually try and ignore them, every once in a while I do answer and ask them to please contact me in writing only. I tell them I can't pay anything right this second. I can't believe reading here about people who've been ignoring the calls for 4 years without being sued? My highest debt is around $3k, three of them are around $1k each, and the four of them are around $500 each. I really don't know what to expect. My dad seems to think for the smaller debts they won't come after me, but what about the $3k? That one is already in 3rd party collections and wondering about them suing me on that one before I can file BK. If I even decide to go BK.

[viking64]

I met with lawyer on July 1. Beginning July, I gave her name and phone number. Once I rent through 1 round with each creditor, I just turned the phone off. We have voice mail through own phone provider, so I would just check it once a day to clear messages.

I could tell from Caller ID that several creditors called multiple times but would leave a message every 4th or 5th call. I swear they knew when I deleted their previous message, because that's when they'd leave another.

Capital One was most persistent. Chase never called once I told them of my intent to file and gave them attorney's number. Another said they would still call once a week until I actually filed, but I was polite with all of them and they were polite with me.

Most annoying was Sears who suggested I take out a work loan, payday loan or family loan to pay them. After lecturing them on the stupidity of going into debt to pay debt, particularly with my employer, I advised them that it could be seen as preferential payment anyway and likely taken back by the court. Did they really want me to do that? The person just said a curt "Thank you" and hung up. Never heard from them again.

Now that we've filed, the phone ringer is back on and never rings. Ironically, the last week before filing, we had more political campaign calls than creditor calls!

[Dst1]

I have been getting calls for about 6 months now. I usually try and ignore them, every once in a while I do answer and ask them to please contact me in writing only. I tell them I can't pay anything right this second. I can't believe reading here about people who've been ignoring the calls for 4 years without being sued? My highest debt is around $3k, three of them are around $1k each, and the four of them are around $500 each. I really don't know what to expect. My dad seems to think for the smaller debts they won't come after me, but what about the $3k? That one is already in 3rd party collections and wondering about them suing me on that one before I can file BK. If I even decide to go BK.

Oh please. It will cost them 3k to sue you ad see it through. It's a good rule of thumb that if the debt is less than 4k they won't do anything, write it off. Of course, YMMV there are no guarantees.

The other rule of thumb is that you should not file for BK for anything less than 20K. Seriously, even working a $10.hr job you should be able to pay off 5k in a few months. Given that a BK filing is at least $1000 and more likely 2K is rather pointless for what you have to gain.

[lindsay2181]

^i only mentioned the credit card debt. i also have a secured loan that is just as much as all the cc debt combined. and the problem is, i CAN'T work right now...hoping to go back around the middle of next year but will be paying for daycare for 2 and not sure what will be left for take home pay. i haven't gotten anywhere with the cc debt for the past 5 years, so i DOUBT i will do anything with in in a few months!

[Dst1]

Then I would just see it through. Even for 10K I don't think filing a BK is worth it, you only have one shot in seven years. That's just my opinion.

[Hillbilly]

We are now well into our fourth year of ignoring collections phone calls, and they have slowed to a trickle.
We lost our previous home of 31 years to foreclosure, and stopped making payments on the HELOC at the same time we stopped making the first mortgage payment.
The HELOC had a remaining balance of around 18k, and the latest statement gives a total amount owed as 22k, but are willing to 'settle' (option 1) for only 15.5k in cash
Or (option 2) for only 6 monthly payments of $2760 !
(My total monthly pension_ which by law they cannot touch, totals only $2200 a mo.)
Generously, they also offer to let me pay only $200 a month for the next ten years towards the entire $22k amount.
Of course if I were stupid enough to send them even a dollar towards payment, the account is reopened and the clock on the Statute of Limitations begins all over again.

I think that under those conditions, it will be a cold day in hell before I'll ever willingly give them another penny.

[elle20905]

I haven't paid any(excluding my car note and CC through the same CU) since April. I haven't gotten calls since May.

I was laid off 6/2/09, and so my car is now 54 days overdue and my last payment on that CC was around 7/1/09...

After that the CU was calling daily (only once or twice a day usually), but after a month of ignoring their calls, they began 'masking' the number they were calling from...

Initially it was always an (800) number... Then the called from an "unknown" number... Then Used a local number... and finally started somehow "calling" me from my own cell phone number (it would come up on the screen as my own voicemail was calling me)...

I know there are ways to 'hide' the number you are calling from, but I didn't know it was possible for someone to call me 'using' my own number.

They have started emailing me this month as I no longer have the number on file...

Hoping I can file before they file a suit against me... Planning to file Ch 7 BY 12/15...