Avoiding phone calls? Is this okay?

[lindsay2181]

I am about 6 months behind on seven credit cards...ranging from $500-$3500. I am getting loads of phone calls. I honestly CANNOT pay them right now. It stresses me out just to SEE them calling, because I know I can't pay. I have told them all my situation and I get the "thanks, have a nice day" bit and then they call back a few hours later. I have a high-risk pregnancy and cannot work...my husband's income barely covers mortgage/utilites. I don't forsee myself going back to work before May/June 2010. These calls stress me out. My father gave me a 1-800 number to some sort of "advice" hotline. I was advised to request to be contacted in writing only (I have verbally asked them but not sent any written letters yet) and to either change my number or just put my cell phone on silent and ignore the calls. For now I keep my cell phone on silent rather than go to the trouble of changing it. Every now and then, I will answer, and tell them my financial situation has still not changed. It takes me 10 minutes to get off the phone with them b/c they want to offer a "special deal" where I only have to pay x amount this month....I cannot pay them even $10! I just can't! Now some of them have been sent to collections, and those calls are not as nice. I had one guy really bullying me the other day and I started crying. Now they are calling my parents' house....don't know where they are getting their phone number but my parents are not happy about getting the calls. They tell my parents, "she's not answering her phone so we are calling you to leave a message for her to call us." Well....if I'm not answering the phone that means I don't want to, it's not going to do any good to call my parents' house. Do other people avoid phone calls in this situation and should I keep doing it? Or should I just answer and go through the whole deal with them over and over, 10 or more times a day? I have not had an initial consult with a BK lawyer yet b/c my husband is convinced it's a bad idea. I'm easing him into the idea of it, at least going to TALK to an attorney. But in the meantime, it is a bad idea for me to avoid these phone calls?

If you would like background info please read my "newbie" post here:

http://www.bkforum.com/showthread.php?p=349005#post349005

[appleae]

I would avoid them, because they will just continue to harass you. If they're calling you at work, tell them not to.

But I would also recommend you speak with an attorney as soon as possible. Most give free consultations. Once you pay a retainer to the attorney, you can inform all your creditors to stop harassing you and contact your attorney.

[lindsay2181]

I don't work, I am a stay at home mom for the time being with a hisk risk pregnancy, (reason we can't just pay them) so luckily don't have to worry about them calling employers.

And at this time, I can't afford a retainer fee. We are barely scraping by, even had out electricity shut off last week b/c we were late paying the bill. No way I can come up with enough to hire an attorney until we get our income tax return at the beginning of next year.

[Snickers]

lindsay, look at this thread:
http://www.bkforum.com/showthread.php?t=47712
and take the advice of poster JustBroke (about halfway down the page).

Oh, and many BK Attorneys have free consultations. Look around locally and make a few appointment to talk to a couple. You will be glad you did.

[justbroke]

Thanks Snickers... you saved me from cutting and pasting.

[lindsay2181]

Thanks Snickers. I took a look at that thread...and I have MANY times, gave them the story to get them off my back. But they don't let up! They are not waiting til the next month to call, they call back several times in the same day! I just get frustrated having to tell someone the same thing over and over.

I do plan to see a BK attorney for the initial consulation sometime soon....just trying to get my husband on board first. If he doesn't budge I'm prepared to go against his wishes on this.

[DeadManCrawling]

A majority of the calls are probably automated messages, computer-driven. If you can get an old answering machine, or already have one, where you can hear the message, you can figure out quickly if this is the case.


If it is not a computer, and you wish to explain the situtation, pick up the phone and tell em again. I know this can get tedious, but at least it stops them from going to your contact list and calling mom, dad, work, etc.

They only have the power you give them, at this point.

Good luck

[jdcat]

I'm about to begin experiencing what you're going through Lindsay. As of right now I am no longer paying our monthly cc's. The first one comes due tomorrow then the other 3 follow just days later. I've been wondering how bad it's going to get with the phone calls. I don't know how I'm going to explain all the phone calls to my kids (ages 14, 12, and 7). I'm thinking about telling the cc's we are just having a hard time right now and stick with that for a little while. Then if things get really bad I'm thinking about possibly changing our phone number, but am wondering if there could be possible draw backs to doing that. If there are no drawbacks then a number change might bring you some peace of mind.

[debtsucks]

They are skip tracing you. That is how they are calling your family. I use to work for medical collections, and we would skip trace down pretty much any family that we could and we would leave a message for them to have the debtor call us back, although we were not allowed to tell them what the call was about, they knew. I lasted about a month in that job. I just couldn't be mean and cold to these people. From what I remember once they talk to you in that day, they are not allowed to make anymore contacts with you for that day on that same debt. They do not let up, and it only gets worse. I got 21 calls today! One creditor called me every ten minutes for an hour. Also, when you do answer and it is blank at first, it is their automatic dialer. If you don't answer it when it calls you then it will reset your number in the system to call you back in about an hour.

[lindsay2181]

Yeah, that's what this guy from the debt management company suggested to me. I've had this same phone number for going on 10 years now, and just wasn't ready to change it. I think they'd only charge me around $36 to change it but it's just that all my friends/family have this number and it seemed inconvenient to change it. Of course it would stop some of the stress but then my parents would probably get more phone calls.

[debtsucks]

section 805(b)2. specifically says, "debt collectors may not call third parties under the pretense of gaining information already in his possession." Thus, calling your family, friends, neighbors, employees, employer and so forth, after they already have your phone number, is a serious violation of the FDCPA and should be reported to your State Attorney General immediately.

Just thought I would add this in here for ya. I got this from Fair Debt Collections.com there are links on there for reporting abuse if you feel they are in violation.