Premptively advise creditors of bk?

[mama2three]

Hi everyone,

I have been lurking here for about a month researching bk. We are planning on filing for Chapter 7 in September. We are current on all of our payments but come September we will be having a $500.00 increase in monthly bills as well as increases in our Chase payments coming in August. Right now we are barely slipping by each month.

Our attorney advised us to stop paying the credit cards, however, both my husband and I cannot have creditors calling us at work. Is it okay to call them and advise that we are filing bankruptcy and given them our attorney's name and number to avoid the calls at home/work?

Thanks for any advice/input.

Mama

[kenshirley]

What we did was tell them we were having some problems and that we would try to work with them. That seemed to keep them at bay for the time being.
I know you said you are current, but telling them you are filing in Sept and stopping payments now may set them off.
Even at that, according to what we have been told by our attorney back when, they would really have a rough time getting you served and all and getting you into court before you could file.
Still, I would not tell them of the BK being certain or even discuss it for that matter at this point.
You could even make a token or partial payment.

[liz417]

Yes you can, but the creditors have every right to call you at home until you have an actual case number. If you receive a call at work, inform the creditor that YOU (or your Hubby) CAN NOT take personal calls at work. They should stop. I stopped paying creditors a year before I filed, I gave them my attorney's number and they hardly ever called my house. I also made sure that I picked up the home phone every once in awhile to let them know I was "still around" and NOT avoiding them (they tend to call when my debt moved to a new collection agency), if you avoid their calls, they will call work, family, neighbors too.

[OhioFiler]

Do your creditors have your work numbers?

Call them now and tell them you have a new work number and give them some pizza joint's phone number.

Stop paying those credit cards! You're wasting money trying to avoid a few phone calls.

Did your attorney indicate you can refer the creditors to his office? If so, then have them call the attorney once they start calling.

[liz417]

Do your creditors have your work numbers?

Call them now and tell them you have a new work number and give them some pizza joint's phone number.

Ha! Never thought of that one!

[mama2three]

thanks

Thanks for the replies. I'm not sure if they have our work numbers or not, but it is a possiblity. I already went to our profiles online and changed all the numbers to our home phone, but wasn't sure if they still would have it tucked away somewhere in their systems. I am all for stopping payment and saving the money, but have to get my husband on board. Maybe I will give the pizza joint number a try

[whipster1]

If your attorney allows it, you give them that number when they call.

They do have every number you ever gave them in their archives...my parents got calls looking for me from a Sears card that had not had their number in more than 20 years.

[frogger]

Old and out of date phone numbers never go away. Even if you change them now, the other ones are still there. Collectors NEVER delete any tidbits of information.

And when you get to 3rd party collectors, the software automatically records all changes, notes, and information to a permanent file that can not be altered or deleted. Information never goes away.

[mama2three]

My attorney does allow me to direct calls to her so I will do that. Now I just have to get in the mindset to not pay my bills, they are coming up due in a couple of weeks.

Thanks for your replies.

[Over our heads]

I hard a hard time not paying those bills the first go around. My lawyer actually said "Get a box and mark it 'Hate mail for D'". I was to put all of the bills that we weren't going to pay in that box, and give it to her! We also retained her before we stopped paying, so as soon as they started calling, I pushed them right off to her. My hub had also just started a new job a few months before the stop pay, so none of the creditors had his new work number. They would call the house, I'd say he wasn't here, they would ask to leave a message, and I would say being a secretary is not in my job description.

Fwiw, we stopped paying in September 08, and we just filed 6-10-09.

[SweetGeorgia]

They would call the house, I'd say he wasn't here, they would ask to leave a message, and I would say being a secretary is not in my job description.

That is a wonderful response; I would love to use that. What about, "Oh, I don't do that anymore because it turns out I'm very unreliable."

I've managed to avoid almost all the creditor phone calls, only picking up when the caller ID matches someone in my phone list. Whenever an unknown number calls in, I google it, and if it's a creditor or collector I save the number under "Collection," or "Citibank." Next time they call, I know who it is.

[Goodgrief]

Do your creditors have your work numbers?

Call them now and tell them you have a new work number and give them some pizza joint's phone number.

Stop paying those credit cards! You're wasting money trying to avoid a few phone calls.

Did your attorney indicate you can refer the creditors to his office? If so, then have them call the attorney once they start calling.

Your creditors usually only call you at work if they can't get you at home. You need to keep in contact with them and answer the phone(at first) until you file. My lawyer told me to give them her number and she will handle it with CD and other tactics.