A Prepaid Cell Phone #

[adam7050]

I activated a prepaid phone so i would be able to go online and update my contact info before i go late on payments. I'm not going to answer the calls, but I can retreive the voice mails. Do you think this will limit the harrassment to my regular cell phone #?

[liz417]

Nah, now they have 2 phone numbers to call!! Seriously, I don't know if this will "limit" the harrassing calls, but why not pick up the phone and talk to them every once in awhile? You don't want them to contact your family, friends and neighbors do you?

[adam7050]

I was hoping that updating my contact info online, they wouldnt keep a record of the old #. we'll see!

[dingdong]

Now they will have two phone numbers to call. They will keep your old contact info as well. You have just given them a reason to cause you to rack up charges on your pre-paid cell phone.

Don't do it. Get a pre-paid, give the # out to your friends/family and turn the other one off until after 9:00PM when they aren't allowed to call.

[twuoo]

Yup, they call any and all numbers that they have on file.

Just turn the phone ringer off.

Give the new phone# to just your friends.

[adam7050]

you guys all seem pretty sure that when i update my contact info, that it doesnt replace the old info, and they keep old records? Bummer, i was feeling pretty smart for a minute there.
What about this? If i just changed my # with AT&T, do they have acess to their database to get my new number?

[JoeBankrupt33]

Just Might Work

I did this. I was absolutely dumbfounded when it worked. I only have three creditors hounding me, but it worked like a charm. Mine are Juniper Bank, Capital One, and HSBC mortgage.

I actually changed my contact info with all of these folks after I was already 30+ days late (but before they discontinued my internet logins).

Believe me, I did not think this was going to work, but it did, now I get about 25 missed calls per day. Some days, though, I just turn it off.

If you do this, make sure you set up the voice mail on the new phone to indicate that it is you.

I was thinking that if it didn't work, I would try to set my voicemail on my regular phone to "...this phone has been disconnected. If you feel you have reached this message in error..."

[adam7050]

You made my day! It might just work. can't really hurt. i'm gonna update my info before anything goes late. I'm not going to carry the phone, just check the messages. Maybe answer if when im by myself and its not embarrasing. If it doesnt work, i was wondering if i should just change my number, or do they have the ability to get that number? if they do, i would activate a phone in a friends name. any input?

[JoeBankrupt33]

I would recommend answering the second cell phone every now and then. This will verify to the creditor that this is you. On your main cell phone, if somebody calls and you know it's a creditor, answer it "Hello, this is Mike." If they ask for Adam, tell them that you don't know him and ask to remove your phone number from their list.

If you do change your number, they might get it, but for my soon-to-be ex-wife, it took her creditors maybe 5 months to get her new number. But, if you have a second phone and you answer it occassionally, then they have no need to hunt you down.

[dingdong]

I recently switched cell providers and got a new number, I wasn't getting any creditor calls because most of my debt was old and they had given up, just switched and forgot to transfer my old number to new carrier.
( Nobody calls me except family and work, so no big deal)

Anyway I started getting calls from Chase, (asking for some girl whom I had never heard of), for whoever had my new phone # before me. They called at least 10 times a day and I told them my # was very new and I wasn't who they were calling for. They were very nasty, didn't believe me and I finally threatened them with a lawsuit, asked to speak to the supervisor, and asked for the name of who I was speaking with and told them if they didn't stop calling I was going to personally sue him for harassment and the extra charges on my cell phone ( Not really sure if I could, but didn't stop me from threatening!)

I probably told at least 10 different people from Chase, I wasn't Aurora something and they still kept calling.

They don't care, but good luck.

Why don't you just call your regular carrier and see if you can just switch the number, tell them you are getting non stop harassing calls from someone you don't know and they are running your bill up.

You might have to re-up your contract, but at least you will have a quiet cell phone and they can just call your prepaid since you updated your contact info with the PP #.

[bk4sky]

i got a prepaid specifically so my mom can give them that number when they called for me, unfortunatley i had all my credit cards so many years that my parents number was the one on file, so when they call my mom gives them my prepaid cell phone wich clearly states my full name and to leave a message, but one of them called my parents nieghbor and if my dad would have got that message he would have flipped (im trying to keep this private from my dad) but it doesnt work, they still keep leaving messages on my parents answering machine and my dad heard some of them, he hasnt said much tho.