Collection Calls Have Started

[keepsmiling]

yeah I've got an opinion. Don't waste your money.

[TXskyblue]

I would put my phone on silent to take a nap and woudl wake up to 10 missed calls. They are relentless and they do it on purpose.

I did the broken record of "I am having finncial difficulties and cannot pay at this time" and would not say any more. They will ask if you have a job. They will ask if your address is the same. They will ask if you are filing bankruptcy. Do not give them ANY information. Do not answer them if they ask what color the sky is. At best, it will do nothing positive for you. At worst, you could be causing problems for yourself.

If you answer them every so often, the calls usually decrease at least temporarily. I didn't want them contacting my friends, family, and employer so I talked to them every do often.

Be strong, this is a temporary thing.

I also believe, although I have no data to prove this, that talking to them every so often and telling them that you have financial difficulties decreases the risk of getting sued before you file. They assumed I had lost my job and I did not affirm nor deny this. I just said I didn't want to get into the details of my financial problems and tried to sound real depressed, so they assumed I lost my job. No job = less motivation to sue. Others on here disagree with me, but this is my opinion.

eta: It wasn't hard to sound depressed. Going through this sucked and I was depressed all the time.

[nioka]

TXskyblue,

Thanks for the post.

After reading the crap these CC companies pull and the suggestions of others here at BK forum I have decided not to answer at all. I will not be refilling my old phone when the time runs out.

I am retired with protected income and no assets. I think the only thing the CC companies have is harassment and intimidation and if I don't answer the phone that is not going to happen.

[keepsmiling]

Good choice. Took them years to sue us. We stopped answering phones after about 2 weeks when we learned about gv. When you have nothing to lose there is little to fear

[nioka]

I think the CC's have spammed my phone number. Yesterday I got 29 calls mostly from odd ball sales firms. I didn't answer but I checked the numbers online. I am also now getting many calls that ring 2-3 times and hang up. I think that is intended to be an annoyance.
I now understand why there are people who harass the collectors.

[Pjmax]

See if your phone has a feature to block unknown numbers, that will eliminate a good chunk of calls. If your cell is a smartphone, there is an app called Call Filter that worked great for me. Every time I'd get a call with a number, I'd add it to the list. After about a week or two, no more calls at all.

[keepsmiling]

He's not gonna need it cuz he's gonna ditch the old phone! I think at this point it's just a matter of curiosity. Believe me, they can hang in there longer than you can Ditch it and don't even give it another thought.

[GoingDown]

The bottom line is that you have absolutely NOTHING AT ALL to gain by talking to debt collectors. You will not be able to convince them to leave you alone, and taking their calls does not guarantee that the collectors will leave your friends and family alone. Even when I was talking to the collectors, they started calling my parents' house, because that was one of the phone numbers in my credit report. If you speak to debt collectors, you could accidentally give out information which could harm you, such as the name of your bank or employer, the fact that you plan to file for bankruptcy in the future, the fact that you have assets or other property, etc. It is best to ignore their calls, and even better still to change your phone number, so they cannot bother you!

I agree. In my experience, you gain nothing from talking to debt collectors, but you will lose your temper by talking to them, and life is too short for that.

If it is a third party debt collector, I always send off a letter disputing the validity of the alleged debt, requesting written verification of the alleged debt, and telling them to cease and desist from any communication with me by telephone. In my experience it works almost every time and gets them to stop calling. And I found that many original creditors will voluntarily honor it and stop calling as well.

If that fails, get a new phone number, or port your old number to Google Voice, and then you can re-direct all calls from debt collectors to wherever you want them to go.

[nioka]

I allowed the old prepaid phone to expire. No more calls.

I got a new prepaid phone with a new number. This was an upgrade from a regular cell to a smartphone.
The sales person told me I can just as easily change my phone number.

BTW, I had an iphone under a two year contract that ended. I really like the iphone but Verizon got greedy and I went to a prepaid.
I just now got a smartphone on the prepaid plan and it is just as good as the iphone. I am now paying $45 a month for much more than Verizon who wanted over $100 for the same.

[Pjmax]

With all the cell phone companies trying to outdo each other now, to win us over, there is no reason to have a contract phone anymore.