Past due calls starting, how do I stall them?

[trueblues]

I can't file until October, waiting for extra income in March to fall off.

I'm 30 days past due with Chase, Discover and AmEx. Chase balance is approx. $12,000. They called 3x a day all weekend and again this morning but I didn't pick up. I plan to answer when they call again today. There's no way I can make the minimum, it's now almost $600.

Also, Discover called once, they will want at least $90. AmEx is due this week, $65. My Citi balance is high, about $25,000 on two cards, and they'll be due soon.

I know the common advice here is to stop paying but I'm really afraid that one of these will sue and force me into filing before I'm ready. There's no way I can make the Chase payment. I could squeeze out the smaller ones but I'm trying to hold onto every penny for the lawyer's down payment.

I'm already $2,000 over annual median but it'll be $5,000 over if I'm forced to file before October. Chase seems the most aggressive, what should I say to stall them? Is there any way to tell which card is likely to take action against me quicker?

Thanks!

[LuciluS]

Save Every Dime you can to give a payment to your Attorney. Once we gave our Attorney $300 last Sept., we were able to give his name and phone number to the CCs'.

We stopped paying all but 1 credit card late last Sept. We've received about 4 collection agency letters. Our attorney told us not to answer the phone or reply to the letters. We will be filing 9/30/09 as we also need to let some income drop off from Feb.

Attorney said if a lawsuit was filed, he would file a reply to delay until we can get our bankruptcy filed. At first, I was really stressed out about the whole situation. Now, I just let the phone ring and the majority of the collection calls do not leave a message.

Luci

[kenshirley]

I stalled them when I was in the same situation.
My wife lost her job due to medical problems and was not going to be able to return to work. We needed to let that income fall off so that we were down to just our retirement.
I told them she it looked like she would need surgery and to be patient and we would be able to resume payments or so we hoped in the future.
You could also make some sort of payment as a good faith. They like that.
Telling them what they want to hear works sometimes and can also keep things from going to collection.

[TeacherMomma]

We stopped paying all of the same creditors you listed in October. No one has sued us yet (99K total), but they do call. We filed Ch 7 on 5/19. I changed the # listed with the companies back in October to my cell phone and I have it set to go straight to voicemail when certain #s or blocked #s call. It took a bit to get all those #s set to my phone, but about two weeks later it didn't bother me anymore. Right before we filed bank of america was the only one that was about to write it off as a bad debt, the others were still trying to collect and we not with collection agencies at that point.

Can't say what would happen to you, but that is what happend to me and the time frame we were in.

[trueblues]

Thanks, everyone. You helped talk me off the ledge. Hopefully the worst I'll have to deal with is the phone calls and not a lawsuit. I'll have to answer occasionally because I don't want them calling family members. I hope I'm up to it.

It's hard when you first stop paying, isn't it?

kenshirley, I have a similar situation. I lost my job and now my husband is on leave recovering from the first of two or three surgeries. I imagine they hear stories like that all the time, but that's exactly what I'll tell them. The truth.

[willbfree]

I owed Chase over $25K when I defaulted and in the five months before we filed they were still trying to collect inhouse. They hadn't even switched us over to a collection agency yet. I can't guarantee your case will go the exact same way but I would assume that you have a minimum of six months before they start to get aggressive. I certainly never heard anything about taking legal action of any kind. The Chase reps were always professional and I always told them I couldn't pay. Expect a call about every four to five days. I could set my watch by the time Chase called.

[kcdawg1]

settlement

Was any of you offered any settlements?

[LuciluS]

TrueBlues: Yes, it was very hard, at first, to stop paying the Credit Cards. Our Attorney asked for an Accounting of any purchases over $600 and all balance transfers on all CCs. It took me over 2 1/2 weeks to do so. After completing his request, I realized we had paid more than double for our purchases and balance transfers; thus, I no longer felt 'bad' at not paying the CCs.

I was lucky as I have every CC Statement, Bank Statements, Closing Statements on homes bought/sold & Tax Returns. My 2 five-drawer filing cabinets are stuffed.

Hey! When the CCs' start calling, don't give them 'too much info'. It can sometimes come back & bite ya in the rear I did answer a call about two weeks ago as it said 'cell phone' & the area code is where my DH's uncle's home is. It was Asset Recovery and she was very rude. I told her to do what she had to do, but that I was 100% disabled and my disability check could not be garnished. She accused me of lying. I finally told her Again, Attorney's Name & Phone # and hung up on her. I was shaking when I got off the phone. So, no more answering the phone if I don't know who is calling.

I think the majority of us have had our share of medical problems. I've had 7 surgeries since 5/1/05 & have a spinal cord stimulator implant. Almost lost DH last month as his organs were shutting down due to, we & doctors, guess a severe case of Cellulitis in the leg where they stripped the vein for his 5 bypass surgery 2/07 & pacemaker in 6/07. He was off work 7 1/2 mths without pay in 2007; however, his company did pay his medical insurance. He missed working most of this past April due to the week's hospitalized & recuperrating. He is an OTR Truck Driver.

We had a 2nd round of phone calls in February as I had told CCs we were filing in 12/08. I had just been dx with Skin Cancer so I took several of the phone calls & told them I would not file until I was given 'all clear' on Cancer. I had two CCs' wish me good luck in my surgery. Besides Asset Recovery, all the collector's were nice, except some would try to get me to answer questions. I would just say My Attorney said he would answer all questions LOL!

I know it's not easy going through this whole process, but try not to let it 'Stress You'. If it get's to the point where the BK is all you can think about, go visit your Doc and get an RX for an Anti-Depressant to get you through it. I did that after the car wreck in 3/05 which took away my career as an Accountant and took them for about a year.

My GP prescribed the Anti-D's back in Jan of this year. Took RX to pharmacist and he refused to fill it as I take morphine 3 x a day and other pain pills.
Pain Pills and Anti-D's don't mix well - can cause Strokes.

Kcdawg1: None of the CCs' (and between hubby and I there are over 15) tried to settle.

Luci

[albacore44]

Hang in there

I got all the same as you except Am-ex. Yes chase calls a lot. Cap 1 once a day. not much from Citi yet. I have not spoken to anyone and stopped paying in March. I plan on filing later this year. I woulden't worry. put you plan together for living post BK, and start working to it. I'm suprised how much extra money I have each month now that I stopped paying cc's.

[markdel16]

Home Depot and Amex are by far the worst so far for me. Since I gave Amex the attorney info, they stopped calling. I haven't answered a Home Depot call yet.

[willbfree]

kcdawg1 both Chase and BofA offered settlements. We suddenly became quite the close friends when we quit paying and both companies didn't want to lose us from the family. It was almost a Hallmark moment. I wasn't interested in settling so I never asked for details on the amounts. I did try and settle with HBSAC? who had one of my dept store cards. The amount was so small that I hated to include them in the bk. Yet they weren't willing to negotiate anything but removal of the monthly nonpayment fee. Also GE Money made it very clear from the first phone call that they don't settle or do debt management programs because they want dollar for dollar settlement. I made it clear right back that I wasn't planning on doing a debt management program .

[kcdawg1]

Not trying to hijack the thread but i as just wondering.I have 2 bofa cards that make up half of my debt.If i could get them to settle i could handle the rest.I heard they would settle pretty easy but i just dont know where to try it or not.Not late yet but i cant continue to pay all these debts,just a mattter of a few months before i go in the tank

[willbfree]

kcdawg1 somewhere around 3 months after you stop making payments the calls gets switched from collection to the debt mediation dept. Keep telling the BofA collection calls you can't pay. Posts here have said somewhere around 30 cents to the dollar is often offered as a BofA settlement. You will start receiving letters in the mail as well with a special phone number to call. Don't jump at the first numbers you hear though because currently BofA is working hard to help people settle the debt and recover something. I think one BofA rep told me they had three different plans I could choose from. Didn't ask for the details though. Chase was the same way. They were very eager to work out a deal.

[albacore44]

kcdawg1 somewhere around 3 months after you stop making payments the calls gets switched from collection to the debt mediation dept. Keep telling the BofA collection calls you can't pay. Posts here have said somewhere around 30 cents to the dollar is often offered as a BofA settlement. You will start receiving letters in the mail as well with a special phone number to call. Don't jump at the first numbers you hear though because currently BofA is working hard to help people settle the debt and recover something. I think one BofA rep told me they had three different plans I could choose from. Didn't ask for the details though. Chase was the same way. They were very eager to work out a deal.

Yep. Get about 6 of those letters a day

[DeadManCrawling]

No need to even answer the phone. Anything you tell them by accident could hurt you later, in court.

We haven't answered a phone call in 2 and a half years. They call occasionally, but nowhere near as much as those first 6 months.