Will soon "miss" my first debt payment...

[cj0203]

I'm kinda nervous. The only payments I've ever missed or even been behind on are medical bills and that's from this year because we just don't have the money they want.

I am sure I will panic when the first CC payment date comes and goes. Our credit is pretty good, so it will be sad to watch it go

Although since we're filing in March I guess it doesn't matter anyways.

I kinda wish we could just file NOW so I don't have to go thru the next 2m of missed payments. But atty said it's best to wait until 90days after you last used the CC you plan to discharge. So we wait.

[qwertysue]

It can be nerve wracking, that's for sure!

Do you have a solid plan of how to handle the money that you will have from NOT paying the CC's?

[vleisme]

It was really odd to not make my credit card payments and I was scared at first too since I worked so hard to always pay on time. Be ready for the phone calls for those 90 days you wait to file we have caller ID so we just turned down the ringer and let them call without answering. It is the calls to our work place that was hard to handle we had to explain to our employers why they were calling for us all the time.If you ever listed your work place phone number on a credit app they will be calling you there, you can tell them you are not allowed personal calls and that helps a little.The phone rang non stop at home starting promptly at 8am until 9 pm.

[isitreal]

Send them a letter stating that you do not wish to be contacted at the certain numbers. In fact, you can send them a letter stating that you only wish to be contacted by mail. This may, however, accelerate their collection process.

[isitreal]

Follow up on stopping the phone calls:

http://www.privacyrights.org/Letters/debt2.htm

Basic cease and desist letter. Be sure to include your name, address, and account number with them. Send it priority so you have a verification that they received it.

[krielly]

I remember feeling EXACTLY the way you do when we filed in Oct 05. My husbands credit was in the trash, but mine was pretty good. I was always on time for everypayment even though I was severely overextended.
Citibank, who I'd had perfect credit with for 4-5 years (and who had increased my credit line up to 23K) jacked up my interest from 7.9 fixed up to 29% on the very 1st missed payment. I had felt SO bad about filing on them, as I'd always had a good relationship with them, but after I saw that, my whole attitude changed for sure!

[woohoogirl]

I remember feeling EXACTLY the way you do when we filed in Oct 05. My husbands credit was in the trash, but mine was pretty good. I was always on time for everypayment even though I was severely overextended.
Citibank, who I'd had perfect credit with for 4-5 years (and who had increased my credit line up to 23K) jacked up my interest from 7.9 fixed up to 29% on the very 1st missed payment. I had felt SO bad about filing on them, as I'd always had a good relationship with them, but after I saw that, my whole attitude changed for sure!

Exactly the way I felt about Citi...they were always so good...giving me balance transfers left and right then I missed a payment and holy smoke the interest went from 3.9% to 32%. I decided that two can play that game. I try not to answer the phone anymore, but if I do, when they ask for me I tell them she's not in right now, would you like to leave a message? Most say I'll try later. One jacka$$ from Citi asked to speak with her (my) husband. So I answered, I don't believe she's married, thank you, and hung up. Now I realize that had I been a little more on the ball, I could have tried to zing him about discussing debts with a third person, but i wasn't on my A game that day.

[cj0203]

Oh yeah, I was like 2 DAYS late on my Chase card and they jacked up my rate from 7.9 to 13% and took off my special 0% on like $5k I had in balance transfers. I mean seriously, 2 DAYS???

I feel even worse because we are car shopping right now, (we of course will reaffirm this car) because one of ours is dead (really dead) and we are filing on it. So I stop paying on that one just to pick up another payment. I feel creepy The lawyer says it should be no problem since we can justify needing 2 cars, but still.

[Minnymouth]

Just remember that filing bankruptcy is a "business decision"..... NOTHING personal about it........

Banks, credit card companies, etc feel no guilt or remose about raising your interest rate whether you are a new customer or a 30 year one!!! It's strictly "business" to them also......

So don't wase your time "feeling guilty".................. its wasted effort.....

[Lindsay]

Just remember that filing bankruptcy is a "business decision"..... NOTHING personal about it........

Banks, credit card companies, etc feel no guilt or remose about raising your interest rate whether you are a new customer or a 30 year one!!! It's strictly "business" to them also......

So don't wase your time "feeling guilty".................. its wasted effort.....

I agree with this totally! We were so scared when the creditors started calling. Chase did sue us after 4 months of late payments, but we waited a long time to look for a lawyer. So far its been about 6 months since we stopped paying. Our credit rating is in the toilet, LOL! But we haven't used a credit card in 7 months and we're surviving. It's actually kind of empowering especially having made it through the holidays without the use of credit.

We had a strong payment history, almost all accounts were 8-10 years old, no lates on the credit reports and our creditors thought nothing of raising our rates to 30% because we had high balances on some of the cards. The irony was that this forced us into bankruptcy where we couldn't make minimum payments anymore. If they had left our rates low, we could have managed to pay them off over the next five years.

It's a sad thing that they can do this to a good customer when we didn't even pay late one time. The real depressing thing was that several of our creditors weren't even reporting our true credit limit so it appeared that we were maxed out on some cards when we actually had $15,000 in available credit. This caused the other creditors to rate-jack us which caused a downward spiral in our finances. I'm never going to get another credit card and we already own a house so I'm not terribly concerned about our credit score other than worrying if our insurance will go up.

[halloweendmb1]

I agree with this totally! We were so scared when the creditors started calling. Chase did sue us after 4 months of late payments, but we waited a long time to look for a lawyer. So far its been about 6 months since we stopped paying. Our credit rating is in the toilet, LOL! But we haven't used a credit card in 7 months and we're surviving. It's actually kind of empowering especially having made it through the holidays without the use of credit.

We had a strong payment history, almost all accounts were 8-10 years old, no lates on the credit reports and our creditors thought nothing of raising our rates to 30% because we had high balances on some of the cards. The irony was that this forced us into bankruptcy where we couldn't make minimum payments anymore. If they had left our rates low, we could have managed to pay them off over the next five years.

It's a sad thing that they can do this to a good customer when we didn't even pay late one time. The real depressing thing was that several of our creditors weren't even reporting our true credit limit so it appeared that we were maxed out on some cards when we actually had $15,000 in available credit. This caused the other creditors to rate-jack us which caused a downward spiral in our finances. I'm never going to get another credit card and we already own a house so I'm not terribly concerned about our credit score other than worrying if our insurance will go up.

Not every insurance company will look at your credit score. I can recommend national companies that don't look at it. I know one particular one does and that family is nothing short of a family, wink wink

[CindyLou]

I had NO late payments on my credit, EVER when I stopped paying my credit cards cold turkey! I didn't really "feel" the extra money, as I had been charging approx. the amount of money I had been using to pay my minimums each month on things like gas, groceries, etc. I was a vicious vicious cylcle.

Once I maxed out I had not choice but to stop paying. It was very hard and honestly I held on sooooo long to try and save my credit score. Of course back then I didn't realize that no late payment didn't equal good credit if you were maxed out.

[epiphany]

We had a strong payment history, almost all accounts were 8-10 years old, no lates on the credit reports and our creditors thought nothing of raising our rates to 30% because we had high balances on some of the cards.

Yeah, that really pissed me off too...I had some lower my credit limit as well and there was never a problem with them. I started thinking like Minny...this is business. Treat me like a number (I know, I know, that's all I am to them) and you will get the same in return.

Even my credit union, who I really wanted to pay off, (yeah, we don't need to get started on credit unions) recently has begun to treat me like crap and I am not even 30 days behind on 2 loans..have been making payments when I can and even called them before I decided to file to bankruptcy to explain my situation and the loan officer was a condescending B. Their letters are nastier than any others that I have received.

My guilt has long since passed.

EP

[stljohn]

Exactly the way I felt about Citi...they were always so good...giving me balance transfers left and right then I missed a payment and holy smoke the interest went from 3.9% to 32%. I decided that two can play that game. I try not to answer the phone anymore, but if I do, when they ask for me I tell them she's not in right now, would you like to leave a message? Most say I'll try later. One jacka$$ from Citi asked to speak with her (my) husband. So I answered, I don't believe she's married, thank you, and hung up. Now I realize that had I been a little more on the ball, I could have tried to zing him about discussing debts with a third person, but i wasn't on my A game that day.

I had 3 citi cards and paid em all on time for years but as soon as things went sideways they did me the same way; 30% apr, $35 late fees the whole nine. I had been mentally avoiding the BK thing until I saw how they were gonna play it.

[ssdsco]

Follow up on stopping the phone calls:

http://www.privacyrights.org/Letters/debt2.htm

Basic cease and desist letter. Be sure to include your name, address, and account number with them. Send it priority so you have a verification that they received it.

Do original creditors have to comply with this ? I didn't think so.