This past week we finally had our meeting with the attorney, went through everything, and filled out all of our paperwork. Things have actually been oddly ok over the past couple of months. I think the last time I posted here was August when I had a pesky collector who started calling my parents "looking for me." Obviously everyone's mileage will vary with this, but I thought I'd relate my experience thus far:
I stopped paying on my cards January 2012-call it a "New Year's Resolution." I sold my truck and used that money plus the cash I was saving not paying over $800 worth of minimum payments every month to get my wife into a certified pre-owned used vehicle with a 10 year/100K mile warranty (to make sure that we're covered through the BK) with a reasonable payment before she defaulted on her cards. By March we had found the right vehicle and she was able to stop paying. Following the advice here we both set up GV numbers but they did still eventually dig up our cells and home phone. I fielded one call at work, instructed them never to call again and that solved that problem. My wife is unemployed so she just turned the ringer off on the home phone-no one usually calls us on it anyway. The calls were pretty steady from April to August but they were very predictable-each creditor seemed to call at the same time on the same day. Then they'd go quiet for two weeks, then start back up again. I had met with two different attorneys in February for a free consult and in August when the collectors started calling around to family members I called the one I got a better feel from back and paid the retainer fee.
After paying the retainer I began to answer the collection calls and told them that I had retained a law firm and that all calls should be directed to them, gave them the contact information, case number, etc... Some got snide with me and started asking if we were filing BK, one pressed me and said "is this a real law firm or just something you made up?", and some just said "Ok thank you." Then the calls abruptly stopped-no letters, nothing. Life began to feel pretty normal again. When we met with the attorney I asked how many C&D letters they had to send out (I was worried about extra fees) and they told me they hadn't sent out any. They said that a few called to verify that I had indeed given out the contact information of a legitimate law firm and that we had indeed retained them. Apparently that was enough to cause them to lose interest and move on to the next poor sap. I liken it to a burglar approaching a house who hears what sounds to be a large barking dog inside. The burglar then moves on to the next house where there's no barking, which is presumably an easier target.
So our petition gets filed with the court tomorrow and we wait... Hopefully we'll have our discharge in hand in about 4.5-5 months according to the attorney. Filing just before the holidays will probably delay things a bit since the courts will be off a number of days this month and next. In any event I feel like we've already made a lot of progress. We're actually spending less than we're taking in, paying for things with cash, and not getting harassed. At this point we just need to go through the motions to make it all official and get the debts completely wiped out. There are still some challenges as my wife is on unemployment and we're waiting to see what Congress does with EUC benefits as part of the fiscal cliff nightmare. In any event, this forum has been unbelievably helpful in all of this and I'm glad that I found it! I'll give updates periodically as I get them, but there should be no surprises as we're a no asset case.
I stopped paying on my cards January 2012-call it a "New Year's Resolution." I sold my truck and used that money plus the cash I was saving not paying over $800 worth of minimum payments every month to get my wife into a certified pre-owned used vehicle with a 10 year/100K mile warranty (to make sure that we're covered through the BK) with a reasonable payment before she defaulted on her cards. By March we had found the right vehicle and she was able to stop paying. Following the advice here we both set up GV numbers but they did still eventually dig up our cells and home phone. I fielded one call at work, instructed them never to call again and that solved that problem. My wife is unemployed so she just turned the ringer off on the home phone-no one usually calls us on it anyway. The calls were pretty steady from April to August but they were very predictable-each creditor seemed to call at the same time on the same day. Then they'd go quiet for two weeks, then start back up again. I had met with two different attorneys in February for a free consult and in August when the collectors started calling around to family members I called the one I got a better feel from back and paid the retainer fee.
After paying the retainer I began to answer the collection calls and told them that I had retained a law firm and that all calls should be directed to them, gave them the contact information, case number, etc... Some got snide with me and started asking if we were filing BK, one pressed me and said "is this a real law firm or just something you made up?", and some just said "Ok thank you." Then the calls abruptly stopped-no letters, nothing. Life began to feel pretty normal again. When we met with the attorney I asked how many C&D letters they had to send out (I was worried about extra fees) and they told me they hadn't sent out any. They said that a few called to verify that I had indeed given out the contact information of a legitimate law firm and that we had indeed retained them. Apparently that was enough to cause them to lose interest and move on to the next poor sap. I liken it to a burglar approaching a house who hears what sounds to be a large barking dog inside. The burglar then moves on to the next house where there's no barking, which is presumably an easier target.
So our petition gets filed with the court tomorrow and we wait... Hopefully we'll have our discharge in hand in about 4.5-5 months according to the attorney. Filing just before the holidays will probably delay things a bit since the courts will be off a number of days this month and next. In any event I feel like we've already made a lot of progress. We're actually spending less than we're taking in, paying for things with cash, and not getting harassed. At this point we just need to go through the motions to make it all official and get the debts completely wiped out. There are still some challenges as my wife is on unemployment and we're waiting to see what Congress does with EUC benefits as part of the fiscal cliff nightmare. In any event, this forum has been unbelievably helpful in all of this and I'm glad that I found it! I'll give updates periodically as I get them, but there should be no surprises as we're a no asset case.
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