Avioding the phone calls

[Stilltheone]

Lets talk about the "real" reason your attorney told you this, and this is one of the questions you should ask when looking for an attorney. Any attorney that is worth their weight in gold will tell you, just tell them to call me, I will deal with them. Cheap ass lazy attorneys or the ones that crank out cheap file for only $99.00 CH7's are the ones that DON'T want to have to vacate a judgment later or be under any type of time constraint to move your case along and don't want to deal with your creditors.

Any creditor that moves ahead with filing a lawsuit after you have given them your attorneys name and told them your are filing BK is an idiot and waste of there own money (however we can't control idiots).

Lastly, any attorney that tells you to not tell anyone you are filing is lazy and once your plop down $$ to him/her you have every right to tell all your creditors to contact your attorney and that you are filing BK.

My attorney was neither lazy nor cheap. I can certainly vouch for that considering I paid her $1800 to file.

Again, I was just reiterating what my attorney had told me. She was certainly not the ONLY attorney to advise this since I have seen it numerous times on this board.

Unplugging my phone for a month was worth it to me. I would much rather ignore calls than to have a creditor file a lawsuit, no matter how slim the chances.

[amymelissa78]

Discover does call us non-stop also!

My husband has 2 cards through them, they are the biggest bulk of our phone calls, besides our local Citifinancial branch that we have two credit card consolidation loans through.

I feel the worse about avoiding Citifinancial. I think it's maybe because we had to go personally into their office to fill out the application, so there is faces associated with the phone calls, plus they seem to be a little concerned on their phone calls because they have figured out that my DH is laid off from work. They call almost as much as discover does.

Even so, I don't think they should be calling my work.

[Stilltheone]

This is an age old question and you will receive a variety of answers.

We NEVER told our creditors that we "planned" on filing bankruptcy. It was advised, through our attorney, NOT to tell them until the paperwork was actually filed for fear of "getting a lawsuit together" against us.

The likelihood that a creditor would "get a lawsuit together" and sue you is probably very slim, but we decided to just wait and tell creditors AFTER we filed.

As for your original question, we unplugged the phone all together. We each had our cell phones and anyone that needed to get ahold of us could do so.

We went for almost a month without a telephone and it was a strange feeling to actually be able to plug it in again. Once we did start answering calls, I made a list of the creditors we had and marked them off as we told them we had already filed. This way, if they called back, I could say "You already called on this date and I already told you what's going on".

Good luck to you!

[getmeoutofhere]

discover

Most of the OC's and CA's have stopped calling me...with the exception of Discover. I have 4 discover cards....3 personal and 1 business. They start at 8:00am and call until 9:00pm every day. Last night they called at 8:58. I asked them if they knew what time it was and they said 10:58 where they are so 8:58 where I am....I played a few games with them until 9:00 and said...oops...it's 9:00 time to go! LOL. I have my cell sent to silent. At the end of the day it is not unusual for me to have 40 missed calls!

[syn]

If you have retained a lawyer then everytime they call answer and say you are filing bankruptcy and any questions they have regarding it to call your lawyer then give the name and number then hang up. Same goes for if you get those threatening notices, just forward them to your lawyer.

[endisnear]

So then my best bet in calculating step 2 would be just to use what he'd be earning on u/e, since who knows if he'll get any deals in that will close? Would an atty have the same stance on the step 2 calculations?

[treehugger1]

When you receive the phone calls, ask them for their consumer service department address. Send a cease and desist communication letter. I realize that the FDCPA does not refer to original creditors, but some states, such as mine, have their own unfair trade statutes that mirror the FDCPA and also apply to original creditors. It only costs a stamp (more if you are eventually annoyed by CA's and wish to do return-receipt.) This may not stop all of them, but I hazard a guess that you will slow down the number of calls. Make it clear that they can contact you at a mailing address. Again, they may not have to abide, but I think many do.

If you have an attorney, and the callers are CA's you should send them a letter notifying them in writing that you have retained an attorney.

Just some ideas that might lead to a more peaceful life.

[ansky0007]

You need to inform them that you are not allowed to receive calls at work and they will not call you there.

Section 805(a) -- Communication with the consumer. Unless the consumer has consented or a court order permits, a debt collector may not communicate with a consumer to collect a debt (1) at any time or place which is unusual or known to be inconvenient to the consumer (8AM-9PM is presumed to be convenient), (2) where he knows the consumer is represented by an attorney with respect to the debt, unless the attorney fails to respond to the communication in a reasonable time period, or (3) at work if he knows the consumer's employer prohibits such contacts.

[amymelissa78]

We haven't retained the attorney yet.

About the unemployment and means test, she really didn't go into detail about wether it would be included. I am pretty sure it is, but he hasn't recieved a payment yet, because every time he applies, there is some stall (the attorney thinks it is on our employers end, maybe a paperwork issue).

I just got home from work, and tonight I recieved a pink phone message slip from the local debtor that is aware of the layoffs at work. So now they are calling my work to get a hold of me. The payment was due on Nov. 10th! Isn't that a little quick to be calling my work?

Is it legal for them to call my work? I was thinking about calling the atty back and see what she thinks we should do, since she told us to call with any questions we have.

We also have turned our phone to 2 rings and then it goes to an answering machine. If I don't recognize the number on my home phone or cell, I don't answer. Plus, Comcast called and offered us a discounted priced package, to try out their phone. The price is good for a year and we get some movie channels thrown in for 5 bucks less then we are paying now, so I am thinking we will turn the ringer off on our vonage line and tell everyone that we want to talk to to call our new number through Comcast.

That's about all we've figured out so far. Since we are not even a full month late, I can't even imagine what next month will be like!

[Trixie007]

What I really want to do is answer the phone and start speaking Chinese.

That's hilarious! Almost worth the trouble to learn a few phrases!

Okiemom2008 - we stopped paying the minimums on 10 different cards from May to June this year - I guess they are supposed to stop at 6 calls per day per account, but they don't. We have 2 accounts with Citi, but they usually call about 20 times per day, sometimes 4 or 5 times in about 10 minutes. Discover also calls way over the limit, and about every 3rd or 4th call leaves static on my voicemail! I usually get my first call at exactly 8:00 am (I always picture the others that are trying, but missed being first by a nanosecond!) and my last call at 9:00 pm.

[okiemom2008]

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.

80-120 calls a day??!!!How many months late are you? Do they just call over and over until you answer? What about the AM-Do they back off then?

[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.

[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.

[ready2puke]

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

[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.