Can't take this anymore -- paying retainer today!

[ssmdem]

UGH!! 8:30 - and my phone has already rang 3 times (twice from the same place). I just can't do this anymore. As soon as my husband gets in, we're heading to the attorney's office and paying the retainer. Just hope we can still make it til December without getting sued -- but I can't deal with the phone calls anymore. I know they'll still be able to call, but at least I don't have to talk to them as long - just pass on the attorney's number and hang up.

[ccsjoe]

Hang in there, you're making the right choice. I'd talk with your attorney about your having to wait til December. We had a citibank account that we were only 26 days late with when I told them we were filing and this is our attorney. They passed account to CA within 1 day. Some will pull trigger quickly when they learn of your intent.

[ssmdem]

Do I care though?? I mean - I can just as easily give the CA the attorney information as well, right? Or is there a reason I need to keep talking with these people? The conversations are just so draining! One kept me on the phone for over 30 minutes the other day -- saying the same thing over and over.

[ccsjoe]

It's your choice. I'm just saying they may be quicker to try and file suit once they know of your intent, especially since you still have a few months to go. Some may not, just making you aware of the gamble.

[ssmdem]

How will they know if I'm filing today or next year though?? I wonder what the attorney tells them if they do call them -- just confirms that we are filing???

[ccsjoe]

Attorney just confirms there is a client relationship established. Don't overthink it. In your shoes, I'd wait until I would be a couple months out then tell them to talk to my attorney. That way, if I truly wanted to avoid a suit, the time would be very tight for them. But that's just my opinion based on my tolerance levels.

[ssmdem]

Maybe she'll tell me something else I can keep telling these people. September 10th marks the "90 days late - now we're escalating the matter" date. Don't know what that actually means in reality - just know they are no longer being nice and pleasant anymore, and I'm sure it's not going to get any better.

Income-wise, October is the soonest we can file as far as being under the median. It's tempting.....it's real tempting. Just trying to avoid an insider payment issue by waiting until December. My mom has said to file and not worry about, and she'll actually just give them the money back herself and we can pay it back to her later. I guess in the big scheme of things -- paying back $1200 is a lot cheaper than paying back $50K+ of unsecured debt.

[tobee43]

ssm...relax...i really know and understand how hard it is...

if you want to hold off until dec. ask your atty to do so...

we retained ours and it was...i'm not certain but 10 months to a year before we had him do the actual filing....but we told all creditos 2 speak 2 attys office directly...that was unless we had a bad day and needed to release some our frustrations...whom better to do that with than those horrible excuse for human beings.

[kartoons19]

I started getting calls after being 10 days late. I had never been late in my life and the creditor that called me I had for 15 years! As the creditors started calling, I woud tell them my situation, but it didn't make a bit of difference to them they just wanted their money. So I decided on the silent treatmeant. I kept my ringer on silence, so it wasn't that bad. I wouldn't even bother talking to them anymore.

When I retained my attorney I was already 4 months late. I talked to my creditors and gave them my attorney's phone number and the calls stopped. When the creditors asked when I would be filing, rather than saying you have to ask my attorney, I said asap. To me asap was 1-2 months, but they didn't need to know that.

It is true that telling them you are going to file could work against you, but it does seem that most people aren't sued until after 6 months of being late and some go for years without being sued. So if you decide to hold off, just silence the phone, it does make things so much easier. Good luck to you.

[ccsjoe]

It is true that telling them you are going to file could work against you, but it does seem that most people aren't sued until after 6 months of being late and some go for years without being sued. So if you decide to hold off, just silence the phone, it does make things so much easier. Good luck to you.

This is apparently true, I just wanted you to have a full picture in mind since you were particularly concerned about suits ssm.

[wonderingrov]

I had a few cards I was late on to the range of 90 - 120 days per card. My approach to collection calls was quite simple: I had caller id. If the phone rang and I didn't know the number, I simply didn't answer it. Very few ever even left messages.

Of course, in my situations, I wasn't working (disability) - so I wasn't worried about being called at work. Also, my relatives knew my situation, so I knew if any of them ever got any calls, they'd basically tell them they could buzz off, and that IF I wanted to talk to them I'd be in touch.


I only had one CA threaten to sue for a medical bill that was about 12 months old at the time, and nothing ever became of that one.

Toward the end, I got to where I would answer a few here and there just to toy around with collectors, but I didn't let myself get worked up over it. I knew I would be filing soon.

[MonnaB]

My experience is that the CC companies started calling immediately after the first payments were missed. We got a lawyer and the calls still kept coming. This lasted for about 5 months until the Credit Card Companies sent the debt to 3rd party collection agencies. At that point we could write Cease & Desist letters. That is the only thing that stopped the phone calls.

The downside is that although the Cease & Desist letters were very effective, it also seemed to trigger the lawsuits.

[SMinGA]

There is really no accurate way to predict what any creditor will do - but I doubt telling them you ar working with a BK atty is going to make them rush to file a lawsuit. Would be money wasted on legal fees. And refering the account to their collection agency is not the same as starting a lawsuit. Just means that instead of having hourly (paid) employees work the account, they outsource it to an agency that only gets paid when they collect money. Is perhaps a better way for the creditor to handle their overhead?

They have information on you. They can see your credit report -that you have one mortgage past due by several months. They have enough common sense to know that the housing industry is pathetic, and no one has equity in their home. And knowing that BK might be in your future means they are likely to get nothing from you by filing a lawsuit. Even if they did start the process to file a lawsuit now, you could probably stretch things out to not file for 3 months and still avoid a judgment.

Ironically USAA is our largest creditor. $18K on one credit card, $5k between 2 others and vehicle loans with balances of $1,500 and $11,500. (We will keep the $11,500 vehicle and ultimately pay for it in a 13 or directly if we can avoid a 13, the $1,500 is dead on the side of our house.) In the past 5 months, I have gotten one letter from them - to call and discuss our 'options' - and it didnt even reference a particular account.

[MonnaB]

We stopped paying CC in Oct '09. Some creditors never did more than send us "reminders" in the mail. Other harassed us endlessly via the telephone. Because of most of our debt being business related we had dozens of cards, some with balances as high as 30k that we would get periodic calls. However, Chase, Citibank and Amex were endless in their calls. From 8:30 am to 9:00 pm every night. Sometimes the same card would be called on 2-3 times a day.

Amex ended up suing us for a card with a balance of $800. Our lawyer screwed up some paperwork and that damn $800 lawsuit was what finally forced us to file.

[ssmdem]

However, Chase, Citibank and Amex were endless in their calls. From 8:30 am to 9:00 pm every night. Sometimes the same card would be called on 2-3 times a day.

Chase and Citibank are who I'm dealing with. Chase has called twice today, Citibank has called four times. We just talked to both of them yesterday -- do they really think anything has changed in less than 24 hours??

You can set your clock by Citibank lately -- the phone rings at 8:02 every morning. I just ignored them all today since we had just talked to them yesterday but the phone drove me crazy.

On a positive note, I guess, we haven't heard squat from Chase mortgage. Sent in the modification paperwork, got a letter that they had received it and would be hearing from them within 30 days. We're not at 30 days, but at least the collection department has quit calling for the time being.