Decided to File, now everyone is calling!

[SMinGA2]

Have 95% made the decision to file ch. 13 in July. Why July? Well, our mortgage will go up slightly in July. Doesn't make sense to prepare a plan NOW knowing it will need to be tweaked. Plus I didn't keep up with my checkstubs last year & I'll need to provide 6 months worth. I'm scanning & storing every stub now religiously. Phone calls have picked up recently, and at the moment July is seeming very distant.

Hubby called me earlier, seems his mom has started getting collection calls for us and Hubby wanted to know if I gave her # as our home #. Of course I didn't! I imagine JDBs or CAs search for our last name & city/state and leave messages 'to locate' us on more than just his mom's machine. (When I search whitepages.com, I see 4 addresses in our city with our last name...) I have now notified "Frontline Asset Strategies" not to contact us by phone, and pointed out that since they have located us, they have NO reason to call family.

On the bright side, I need to start tracking down the JDBs to provide a list to our attorney. This one bought our formerly Juniper/Barclays accounts. Is there a list of all known JDB's out there? Maybe that would be easier! I had 2 Providian/WaMu/Chase cards - think the last I heard they were bought by Cach but not sure who owns them now. It would be simpler perhaps to just include anyone who might have bought one of our accounts, let them handle it from there. Let the claims fall as they may.

More of a rant/vent than a question - but as always, feedback is appreciated.

[slim]

There is a lot you can do if you are prepping to file months away. Bump up grocery spending and so forth...

But the calls will get unbearable.

[keepsmiling]

Google Voice will save your sanity.

[SMinGA2]

I've heard about GV - but don't know the details. If I get a # for GV, I don't think it would be easy to get it out to the creditors. Everything (practically) is in the hands of JDBs and CAs. Talking about accounts defaulted in 2009...

Google Voice will save your sanity.

[keepsmiling]

Believe me it will be worth trying to figure it out. I did it the simplest way since I am not hi tech. I just have ALL calls to my house phone forwarded to GV (about $2 a month for call forwarding). Everyone who knows me knows to just call my cell or send me an e. I get occasional calls from bloodsuckers on my cell but I just don't pick up any numbers I don't recognize.

Do a search on the forum for it and you will find lots of threads discussing ways to handle GV.

[Nofilb]

We ended up canceling our home phone service and went with just our cell phone. The phone calls get so annoying. I'm immune to them now. Hang in there! It's going to be fine!

[4theboys]

This I just in response to your mother in law getting calls. I work at an insurance company paying out death claims and we often have to locate people. We have a subscription to an "online database" where we can search by name, social, pretty much anything. Once we find you, we can locate EVERY relative of yours, whether you have the same last name or not. It's a pretty sophisticated system. We are actually trying to give people money, not collect money, so I'm sure if we use it, collection companies probably use the same sort of thing. I know it doesn't. Matter to you anymore because you have already notified them, more just an FYI.. Not sure if everyone knows how easy it is to locate family.

[SMinGA2]

No home phone - got rid of that years ago. I have started to look into GV - and it seems I can use it with my cell service. Need more research before I do anything though.

4theboys, you make a good point. And in this case, my in-laws address shows on Hubby as a prior address.

Part of the stress, as I'm sure many here can relate to, is in our relationship I'm the one to handle all the 'business' matters. Makes it feel like its all on me sometimes, even though it affects both of us.