What do you tell creditors?

[LimpDisc]

Could you take out a loan against your husband's truck, making it secured debt and protected, in order to pay the atty fees? After you file you may have more $ to allow paying that secured debt back, and secured debt is better for your means test results. Just a thought.

[debtmonster]

Thanks for explaining this, debtmonster. I had heard of Google voice but wasn't sure what the benefit could be. Sounds like a great deal.

It's the BEST deal because it's FREE!!! I would pay for a service like this.

That South Park thing is COOL!!! That's another great idea to deal with CA's!!

[MSbklawyer]

1. Turn your speakers up on your computer.

2. Go here: http://www.crocopuffs.com/soundboard/southpark.html

or here: http://www.aeonity.com/ab/soundboard...ling-blade.php

3. Hold the phone up to your speakers.

4. Use your imagination

5. Have fun.

"You WILL respect my authoritah!!"

"They turned me aloose from the nervous hospital. Said I was well. Mmmmhmmm."

[shabam]

Most of the VOIP telephone companies (like vonage) have great features regarding this sort of thing. Google voice is similar but you don't actually get a phone service. I basically filtered my calls to ensure only my friends and relatives calls got through to me. The rest went to voicemail.

[bluemartini]

Do what we did and get Google Voice phone #'s. You add the phone # of the creditor or collection agency as a "contact". Then you go into the edit mode of the company and change the option from "o Ring my: <your phone #>" and click the radio button that says "o Send to Voicemail"

You can then set up custom outgoing messages specifically for these people that are different that what you would use for all of your other callers.

Step 1: get your free Google Voice account:

http://www.google.com/voice

Step 2: Change your phone # to a non-published number.

Step 3: When people call your old #, have them say it's been changed and tell the phone company to give out your new Google Voice #.

Step 4: Contact all of your creditors and collection agencies and tell them your new Google voice phone #.

Important: When calling your creditors, DO NOT CALL FROM YOUR NEW LINE! Be sure to have the Google Voice do all of the dialing for you so that the new phone # of your Google Voice # shows up their Caller ID. Also a good idea to use this when calling everyone else you know so that they get in the habit of calling you on your new Google Voice number.

Step 5: NEVER, EVER give out your real phone # again. Have all family, friends, work, etc. all go through the Google Voice # from this point on.


From this point forward, if you ever have people call you who are a pest, you can either send all of their calls directly to voice mail without it ever ringing your phone or you can block them altogether with a "spoofed" fake disconnect, which will make them think you disconnected your phone. The fake disconnect is not good for creditors or CA's because then they will try reaching you elsewhere.

As long as all of the CA's and what not are leaving you messages, they will think they have your main contact #.

A good friend of mine did this right before he defaulted on all of his credit cards. He logged into all of his bank accounts on-line and changed his phone # to his new Google Voice #. He used to get up to 20-30 calls per day and 100% of them went to voice mail. He said he was always terrified to pick up the phone. Now his phone never rings unless it's somebody he knows. He thanks me on a regular basis for telling him about this.

Enjoy!!

Thanks for explaining this, debtmonster. I had heard of Google voice but wasn't sure what the benefit could be. Sounds like a great deal.

[bluemartini]

When I first defaulted, I did take a few calls from OC's and after being insulted, shamed and talked down to, I decided not to ever answer the phone EVER AGAIN unless I know who is calling.

Kudos to those who are able to talk back to the debt collectors, but I think I am too thin skinned for that. I still remember some of the ugly comments that were said to me over a year ago.... no thanks.


[\QUOTE=debtmonster;325631]Ha ha! I had the same thing with collection agencies. Once they would confirm who I was and give me the long-winded opening on the phone, they would end the sentence as, "How would you like to take care of this today?"

I would reply, "Oh, I already took care of it."

The CA would then say, "Oh really, how?"

"I hired an attorney. Here's his phone..."

[/QUOTE]

LOLOLOL! Now that is funny!

[pcn]

We are very new to all of this. My dh and I have never missed any CC payments or house payments, and cannot file until we have our attorney fees as they require payment before filing so we are attempting to sell my dhs truck to get the money to pay the fees.Thanks!

Could you take out a loan against your husband's truck, making it secured debt and protected, in order to pay the atty fees? After you file you may have more $ to allow paying that secured debt back, and secured debt is better for your means test results. Just a thought.

[debtmonster]

Do what we did and get Google Voice phone #'s. You add the phone # of the creditor or collection agency as a "contact". Then you go into the edit mode of the company and change the option from "o Ring my: <your phone #>" and click the radio button that says "o Send to Voicemail"

You can then set up custom outgoing messages specifically for these people that are different that what you would use for all of your other callers.

Step 1: get your free Google Voice account:

http://www.google.com/voice

Step 2: Change your phone # to a non-published number.

Step 3: When people call your old #, have them say it's been changed and tell the phone company to give out your new Google Voice #.

Step 4: Contact all of your creditors and collection agencies and tell them your new Google voice phone #.

Important: When calling your creditors, DO NOT CALL FROM YOUR NEW LINE! Be sure to have the Google Voice do all of the dialing for you so that the new phone # of your Google Voice # shows up their Caller ID. Also a good idea to use this when calling everyone else you know so that they get in the habit of calling you on your new Google Voice number.

Step 5: NEVER, EVER give out your real phone # again. Have all family, friends, work, etc. all go through the Google Voice # from this point on.


From this point forward, if you ever have people call you who are a pest, you can either send all of their calls directly to voice mail without it ever ringing your phone or you can block them altogether with a "spoofed" fake disconnect, which will make them think you disconnected your phone. The fake disconnect is not good for creditors or CA's because then they will try reaching you elsewhere.

As long as all of the CA's and what not are leaving you messages, they will think they have your main contact #.

A good friend of mine did this right before he defaulted on all of his credit cards. He logged into all of his bank accounts on-line and changed his phone # to his new Google Voice #. He used to get up to 20-30 calls per day and 100% of them went to voice mail. He said he was always terrified to pick up the phone. Now his phone never rings unless it's somebody he knows. He thanks me on a regular basis for telling him about this.

Enjoy!!

[shabam]

I wouldn't bother answering. Just make sure your voicemail clearly states your name and phone number.

[debtmonster]

i only had one creditor call my work prior to filing and i told them the law says that if i give them notice not to call my work any more they must stop, and i politly gave them my newly changed home phone number, hooked it up to an answering machine and ignored them for 2 months. then when i was 2 weeks shy of filing, i answered the calls and told them i would contact them next payday with great news about how to settle my whole balance, of course when the day came, they all called and i gave them my case number. i dont think that was what they were expecting, but all were polite.

Ha ha! I had the same thing with collection agencies. Once they would confirm who I was and give me the long-winded opening on the phone, they would end the sentence as, "How would you like to take care of this today?"

I would reply, "Oh, I already took care of it."

The CA would then say, "Oh really, how?"

"I hired an attorney. Here's his phone..."

It was a classic! You could just hear the sound of their voice drop as they knew they just lost out on their commission.

A CA is nothing more than a mean telemarketer.

Telling the people I was going bankrupt did almost nothing for collection agencies. As soon as I actually paid the retainer for one and started giving out his phone #, that's when the peace came to my household.

I 2nd the above... after hearing about everyone's rates going to the moon, I also don't feel guilty!

[liz417]

yea, and with my payments being doubled and my interest rates all going thru the roof, i didnt feel guilty at all.

Same here, as soon as one creditor (AMEX) lowered my limit to $200 above my balance (thus creating a "maxed out" card), ALL my other creditors jumped on the bandwagon by increasing my interest rates (from 3.99%-9.99%) to over 29% because I was "at my limit"...Yeah, I don't feel guilty either

[MrSmithster]

yea, and with my payments being doubled and my interest rates all going thru the roof, i didnt feel guilty at all.

[liz417]

i only had one creditor call my work prior to filing and i told them the law says that if i give them notice not to call my work any more they must stop, and i politly gave them my newly changed home phone number, hooked it up to an answering machine and ignored them for 2 months. then when i was 2 weeks shy of filing, i answered the calls and told them i would contact them next payday with great news about how to settle my whole balance, of course when the day came, they all called and i gave them my case number. i dont think that was what they were expecting, but all were polite.

LOL!!! I think they were expecting a payment....

[MrSmithster]

i only had one creditor call my work prior to filing and i told them the law says that if i give them notice not to call my work any more they must stop, and i politly gave them my newly changed home phone number, hooked it up to an answering machine and ignored them for 2 months. then when i was 2 weeks shy of filing, i answered the calls and told them i would contact them next payday with great news about how to settle my whole balance, of course when the day came, they all called and i gave them my case number. i dont think that was what they were expecting, but all were polite.

[liz417]

As soon as I retained my 1st attorney (with only $100), I was able to send all calls his way. It took a year to save the $$ for the attorney. I told all my creditors that I was going to file, they wanted more info but I just referred them to my attorney. I never answered another collections call again UNLESS it was sent to a new CA/another branch, then I would give them my info again.