Question for those who stopped paying c.c's before filing BK7

[justplaintired]

We had never been late on a payment either. Only by a couple of days and never long enough for it to show on our credit report. Once we made this decision, our attorney advised us to not make anymore payments. We had already stopped using the cards for the most part, I think we made 1 or 2 charges after we stopped. On charge actually went threw the same day we made a payment.

This was in Jan. We hope to file anytime now. The attorney has all our papers and as soon as we can get everything in order we will file. The paperwork we filled out was unbelievable, but that's another story.

Phone calls started within a few days of being late. At first we ignored them, then after getting 5-10 a day, we couldn't take it anymore, so we answered and told them the truth. We told them we couldn't do this anymore and had hired an attorney. Everyone was nice, very nice actually, even had a few tell us they understood. They ofcourse took the attorney's name and number. I mean for what we are paying, why shouldn't he have to deal with them??? He told us to refer the calls to his office when we paid him in full back on Feb 14th. Happy Valentine's day huh?? Anyway, I dreaded those calls, having never gotten them before I was worried and scared, as it turned out, they aren't near as mean as I thought they'd be. I broke down and cried a couple of times on the phone, I hate this whole thing. My parents didn't raise me to run away from a debt, but this has been a living nightmare, and we just had to do something to save ourselves.

[Cali]

Put an attorney on retainer. It might take you a few months to pay the entire fee anyway. Best thing we did. Once I had an attorney, I told them we planned to file Ch 7 and gave them the name and # of the attorney and no more calls at all.

And, hoenstly, 2 months late I wouldn't worry too much at all.

That is what we are doing.

[cj0203]

I stopped paying in january and so far I've only gotten a few calls total. I am not sure who it is because they never say in the messages, just that it's important to return the call.

I'm nervous now because we had planned to file in March so we stopped paying but now we might need to wait until May now. I am just hoping to avoid lawsuits/garnishments, etc.

[PaKettle]

We had about 12 creditors I'd say and most of them did not call until after the 2nd payment was overdue. A few called after one payment but they only called once or twice, it wasn't like they were hounding us.

So they didn't really start hounding us until after the 2nd month was missed.

By the time we got to the 4th payment missed, some of them were really hounding us. But we just let the answering machine pick up and as soon as we heard it was a creditor we turned off the volume til they were done and then erased it without even listening to it.

[One Half Full]

I wanted to wait a few months. I stopped paying in January. No calls because--- this will choke you up-- I canceled my phone service about 2 years ago because it was too expensive. I have a VIOP and so far no one knows the number. I also have a pay as you go phone and no one knows the number there too. I actually really tried to pay things and had to get rid of "luxuries" like telephone, television, any sort of entertainment, clothing, oh--- all sorts of "things." Still couldn't pay it due to rising fuel oil and gas costs.

[Penny Less]

Sears got me too but it was a little my fault - I bounced an automated payment to them, called to stop future payments, but a month later whammo got hit with the payment again. I called them very upset, they couldn't do anything but they removed the bounce fee, my last 3 months of late fees and reduced my next months payment by 75%. Not that I am able to pay it, heh. They were nice to me over the phone tho so they get like +3 points for that.

[FreshLikeADaisy]

It was a separate account *with Sears*: one was her payments on a washer and dryer, the other was a one-time debit authorization made two years prior for auto repairs. Both were Sears. It was the fact that Sears had her bank acct info from the auto repairs that allowed them to debit her checking without warning when she was maybe 3 wks (?) late on the washer dryer. It wasn't a matter of her bank releasing the info; it was a matter of Sears taking that info from a prior transaction and using it without warning and without *current* authorization.

Their money was always tight, so it may have been a situation where she had a number of slow pays on the w/d prior to that, but all in all she did a really good job of balancing the payments according to what they had coming in so we were all shocked when the rent check bounced and we found out what Sears had done.

[butterflywings]

LEGALLY, that's true. In practice, it is not. I have heard too many horror stories -- one from a dear friend of mine, who is as honest as the year is long, so I have no reason to doubt it -- where a creditor, using a *one time* debit authorization (such as a payment by phone) or a previously suspended debit authorization (such as, I used to have it automatically deducted from my acct but then stopped) as justification will debit again, without warning, to cover all or part of the arrears *without warning*.

Sure, it's shaky... but if you don't have money to pay them, you don't have money to sue, either.

Yes, it does happen, and pretty frequently. The friend I mentioned above had authorized a car repair through Sears two years prior, a one time payment by phone, and they came into her acct without warning on an entirely separate account and caused her rent check to bounce. Trust me, she would have done anything she could have to stop that from happening, with five small children in the house. Magyar was absolutely right, unfortunately...

A separate account? How did they get her new checking account information? How could her bank release that information? Now I am getting concerned, because Sears is one of my creditors for $765.

I agree with you Fresh that only in a perfect world would banks behave 100% above board.

[FreshLikeADaisy]

Don't get so paranoid over changing your bank. If they don't have a cross-collateraliztion clause in the contract they can't touch it. Any other creditors need to take you court before they can touch it. If neither of these are issues then you're safe. Contrary to what some believe, they cannot just walk in tap your account. The stories you hear of accounts being raided come from folks that neglected to take care of the problem, ignored letters, didn't respond to a summons, didn't show up in court, etc.

LEGALLY, that's true. In practice, it is not. I have heard too many horror stories -- one from a dear friend of mine, who is as honest as the year is long, so I have no reason to doubt it -- where a creditor, using a *one time* debit authorization (such as a payment by phone) or a previously suspended debit authorization (such as, I used to have it automatically deducted from my acct but then stopped) as justification will debit again, without warning, to cover all or part of the arrears *without warning*.

Sure, it's shaky... but if you don't have money to pay them, you don't have money to sue, either.

Yes, it does happen, and pretty frequently. The friend I mentioned above had authorized a car repair through Sears two years prior, a one time payment by phone, and they came into her acct without warning on an entirely separate account and caused her rent check to bounce. Trust me, she would have done anything she could have to stop that from happening, with five small children in the house. Magyar was absolutely right, unfortunately...

[butterflywings]

Don't get so paranoid over changing your bank. If they don't have a cross-collateraliztion clause in the contract they can't touch it. Any other creditors need to take you court before they can touch it. If neither of these are issues then you're safe. Contrary to what some believe, they cannot just walk in tap your account. The stories you hear of accounts being raided come from folks that neglected to take care of the problem, ignored letters, didn't respond to a summons, didn't show up in court, etc.

Ok, thanks for the additional information.

I was able to remove my banking information from all of my c.c sites because either I was able to delete the account (which I was with most of them) or I deleted my dh's checking account and let remain the former joint checking account (that we closed a couple months ago) on there that we still had on file.

Some, not most, but some c.c companies won't let you delete the last remaining checking account used to make online payments to them. We don't have a cross collaterization situation with any of the c.c's as none were with a credit union. Thanks again for your advice!

[jp2861]

Hi! I am off to take your advice as we speak. Question for you first though. Could the c.c company try and take the money out of the account if the checking account used for online payments is only in my dh's name and not mine, not to mention the credit card account is ONLY in my name.

Hopefully I am going to be able to remove the bank account information from all of these cards.

Don't get so paranoid over changing your bank. If they don't have a cross-collateraliztion clause in the contract they can't touch it. Any other creditors need to take you court before they can touch it. If neither of these are issues then you're safe. Contrary to what some believe, they cannot just walk in tap your account. The stories you hear of accounts being raided come from folks that neglected to take care of the problem, ignored letters, didn't respond to a summons, didn't show up in court, etc.

[monkatom]

How far are you from your last credit card usage?

About 90 days but for the last 6 months charges were for gas food etc non luxury items

[butterflywings]

Put an attorney on retainer. It might take you a few months to pay the entire fee anyway. Best thing we did. Once I had an attorney, I told them we planned to file Ch 7 and gave them the name and # of the attorney and no more calls at all.

And, hoenstly, 2 months late I wouldn't worry too much at all.

Ok, thanks. I am not going to tell them I am filing though as I don't want them to have a heads up.

I'll file the first of March and pay in full at that time instead of paying a retainer and paying the balance over time. I am using my tax refund to pay.

[butterflywings]

Originally Posted by monkatom
I have BofA, chase, capital one and Amer Exp. I am about three weeks late and so far chase, AE, and BofA have called. Today I finally answered the phoen and told chase to contact my lawyer. that felt good. will file next month

Were they rude? I won't tell them I am filing. I am going to tell them that I will send in the money soon to hopefully keep them at bay long enough to file.

No he asked if i was filling and I said to ask my attorney he said he needed that info to move teh file along so I told him yes I was filling gave him name and number done deal. No call back from them yet. Figure since i am filling in a couple weeks no reason to deal with the aclls or try and hide from them. Not sure if thgis is teh best advice or not.

How far are you from your last credit card usage?

[DontBother]

Well, I wonder what model I am in? I've never ever been late or over the limit or anything in all my years with these c.c companies. My FICO is 713; all of this is breaking my heart.

I'm not sure...

But for me, for example, prior to filing I had a FICO of around 735, and had never missed a payment for over a decade. By the time I filed, I was 60+ days late on all my credit cards (about $50,000 worth). During all that time, I got a whopping 2 phone calls, and both were from American Express (for a balance of just a couple thousand dollars). Other than that, I got some courtesy letters from the others just reminding to please send in a payment if I hadn't already done so... This also includes my home equity LOC for $90,000. NEVER had a call from them at all!