Avioding the phone calls

[amymelissa78]

We had our consultation with our lawyer on Monday. At this time, we have too much income to file a 7. She advised us to wait untill January, because my husband just got laid off at work on 10/26, so once he is on unemployment for a few months, we will hopefully have a big enough decrease in income to file a 7.

We aren't even a month late on our payments and already the phone is ringing off the hook. We have 2 c.c consolidation loans throught the local citifinancial branch in town here and the message they left us yesterday was, "We know what is going on at your work(with our work laying off 60 employees). Call us up if it is affecting you and we will try to help you out."

It's driving us nuts because we are always on time on our payments, so we feel kind of yucky avoiding our debtors. We have this guilty feeling not answering the phone, but at the same time, we don't want to get into a conversation with them right now and say the wrong thing or anything that might hurt us.

Any ideas on how to deal with constantly ringing phones?

Thanks for the time.

[ansky0007]

We had our consultation with our lawyer on Monday. At this time, we have too much income to file a 7. She advised us to wait untill January, because my husband just got laid off at work on 10/26, so once he is on unemployment for a few months, we will hopefully have a big enough decrease in income to file a 7.

We aren't even a month late on our payments and already the phone is ringing off the hook. We have 2 c.c consolidation loans throught the local citifinancial branch in town here and the message they left us yesterday was, "We know what is going on at your work(with our work laying off 60 employees). Call us up if it is affecting you and we will try to help you out."

It's driving us nuts because we are always on time on our payments, so we feel kind of yucky avoiding our debtors. We have this guilty feeling not answering the phone, but at the same time, we don't want to get into a conversation with them right now and say the wrong thing or anything that might hurt us.

Any ideas on how to deal with constantly ringing phones?

Thanks for the time.

Did you retain the layer yet? You can retain a lawyer now and file when you need to. Once you retain a lawyer you can refer all calls to your lawyer and your phone will die down conciderable.

[hopeforus]

I've honestly just been ignoring it. I set it to ring only 2 rings and then go to the answering machine which I have set on the lowest setting possible so I don't have to hear the beep constantly. The ringer on my phone only goes down to 2 rings and I can't make it turn off. So this is the best I can do. I've gotten used to it. I'm not even a month late on a couple of my CCs and I had like 22 messages last night. No messages... just beeps.

[endisnear]

Hi AmyMelissa! Just curious what your atty said in regards to the u/e income? Are they including it in any calculations, or just ignoring it all together? I'm kinda in the same boat your are. DH has been out of work for a year now. And as for the calls, they started last w/e, when our fist cc was just a week late. Then i noticed things were quiet, i was expecting non-stop calls....then i noticed DH had turned the ringer off. LOL....i know he doesn't want me to stress too much. They don't leave mgsgs though...i just hope they don't call my work

[Trixie007]

I'm in the same boat too - they all have my cell phone # and I get between 80-120 calls a day, except Sundays when only 2 of them call - I read a wonderful post on here about setting their ringtone to mute - wow, that's nice! I know that only helps if you are using a cell phone.

I typically call each creditor on my own time every 2-3 weeks and try not to spend more than 5 minutes on the phone with each them before I end the call (we have 10 cc's). If I time it just right I can finish in time to have a glass of cheap wine while I cook dinner It doesn't slow down their calls to me, but it does give me some sense of control to do it this way.

The guilt was terrible for us until we really started looking at it as a rational business decision - then it just made sense.

[AngelinaCat]

Hi AmyMelissa! Just curious what your atty said in regards to the u/e income? Are they including it in any calculations, or just ignoring it all together?

Hi endisnear! I'm on unemployment compensation, and it was counted when we filed. Also the trustee asked about it--which one of us was it for?

[AngelinaCat]

As to the phone calls, once we retained the attorney, we directed all calls to her office and had her cards with contact info taped to each handset. Most everyone was cooperative and didn't really give trouble.

[endisnear]

Hey AngelinaCat! Well DH has been receiving u/e benefits for most of the past 12 mos, and is elegible for the next 6mos. (He was in mtg sales) I saw on the legalconsumer.com site that there was a part where you could not inlcude it in the test and i was a bit confused. We have to go step 2 to pass, but he just started a new job this Wed that is straight comission, so if he doesn't earn anything he can still collect his u/e benefits....so i wasn't sure in using step 2 if they just would use his u/e benefits as if it were his "wage"

[Flowers]

Like another poster above, I set it to only ring 3 times before it goes to voice mail and I also set the ringer on low.

There are times when I simply unplug the phone.

My attorney advised the same, wait to show the least amount of income.

I just filed TODAY, so hopefully the calls will stop in a few days.

[AngelinaCat]

I don't think we ever took the means test. We handed all our paperwork to our attorney and her assistant--I don't think he is a true paralegal--and they crunched the numbers, but we never learned the results.

Our attorney and her assistant score F in the 'Communications' column.

Anyway on the unemployment, I've been on for a year also, and qualified for the extra Emergency weeks that Bush signed for in July. Your DH will get his full benefit each week, unless he earns a commission that week. Then he will have to declare what he earned for the week, say $144.00 to grab a figure. Then that amount is subtracted from the weekly benefit. I have a small PT job and that is how it happens with me.

[ready2puke]

Ok, I'm confused...I thought even if you hired an attorney they would still call you. Only after you file do they stop...Im glad I'm not the only one pulling my hair out with these calls. They seem to be upping the ante and calling non stop..My client wonder why I press the speaker button twice...lol
The other day I was talking with a client, the phone rings and I turned to press the speaker button twice and I guess the second time didnt connect and I hear on the speaker....Can I speak to so and so???
Crap..I didnt lose my cool tho I just turned and pressed it again and didnt stop speaking ....she probably thought I hung up on a client..
What I really want to do is answer the phone and start speaking Chinese. Man while I typed this I got 5 calls Bus. phone, cell phone, bus. phone and then again cell phone...
They are ruthless.

[ansky0007]

Ok, I'm confused...I thought even if you hired an attorney they would still call you. Only after you file do they stop...Im glad I'm not the only one pulling my hair out with these calls. They seem to be upping the ante and calling non stop..My client wonder why I press the speaker button twice...lol
The other day I was talking with a client, the phone rings and I turned to press the speaker button twice and I guess the second time didnt connect and I hear on the speaker....Can I speak to so and so???
Crap..I didnt lose my cool tho I just turned and pressed it again and didnt stop speaking ....she probably thought I hung up on a client..
What I really want to do is answer the phone and start speaking Chinese. Man while I typed this I got 5 calls Bus. phone, cell phone, bus. phone and then again cell phone...
They are ruthless.

By law once they know you are represented they are no longer allowed to call you and they need to contact the attorney. Once I gave my lawyer a down payment he told me to refer all calls to them and once I did they stopped calling.

[ready2puke]

Even if your not filing for a few months? Will that still work?

[ansky0007]

http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fdcpa/commentary.htm#805

Consumer represented by attorney (Section 805(a)(2)). If a debt collector learns that a consumer is represented by an attorney in connection with the debt, even if not formally notified of this fact, the debt collector must contact only the attorney and must not contact the consumer.

[liz417]

Even if your not filing for a few months? Will that still work?

Yes, I retained my attorney back in mid May and he told me to refer all calls to him. Since I gave the creditors my attorney info (Chase and Amex I had to tell quite a few times!), my phone hasn't rung all all! We don't plan on filing until the begining of the year as we are trying pay our attorney in full before we file our ch 13.