frankson

Is annualcreditreport.com the one that most people use?

Never mind, I think I changed it now.

I posted at 2:30 p.m. EST and it showed the post to be around 11:30 a.m. Do I need to set the time zone differently in my settings? Is that why it's showing differently? Thanks.

I wondered about that too with them seeing other cards being late and then they start their routine. I have one with American Express that is due by the 8th of each month and alll my other cards are due around the 21st (ish). It was crossing my mind that if anything comes in the mail that Amex is going to be the first probably and especially so if they see that all other cards are late in being paid. They know what time it is, lol. What does 'invoke it today mean?' I know the general meaning of the word but I'm sort of missing it here. I'm still learning about all this and your thread caught my attention because I've been weary of what might occur from the credit card companies after 90 days before I'm ready. You wrote your own letter to them? What did you say if you don't mind sharing. I'm scared I'm going to be in the same boat if I've not filed before they do this.

I was going to go to the BK court and listen in on some of these hearings but I had called and finally found out that the last trustee was going to be finished for the day before 1:30ish and so I didn't go. It will probably be week after next before I can go but when I do, I'm going to check around for those flyers saying that you can get help with the forms. I wonder if I could barter on Craigslist with someone that has gone through the BK Chapter 7 and trade some items such as music CDs or items like that for personal assistance on filling out the forms. Just a thought. I'm pretty much bent on using a Court Document Service. I think if I don't, that Means Test might stress me out. I've not even looked at the thing yet, wherever it is (lol) but I'll find it soon. I did go to the library and print out some forms from the BK court. That was an endeavor in itself since I was printing one section at a time so to not mix up any of them. I've yet now to look over them. I have to do this one step at a time, pausing in between, to not get overwhelmed thinking that I can't file the forms myself. I think I can but I think the cost of the Court Document Service might be beneficial. I have the money already. Yeah, out of the money that I set aside to pay an atty of $1,300, which I now know I don't want to hire. One told me that they basically sit there in court and twiddle their thumbs so unless one has a serious case, why have the babysitter?

QUOTE Pretty much two days after my first late credit card bill EVER, I started getting collections calls... nonstop and at odd hours (Bank of America's been calling at 11 at night), so I came up with a novel solution. It requires: a) a home phone that has a "call forwarding" feature. a Google Voice account (free!) c) potentially a cell phone if you want to be able to answer normal calls that come in Set up the home phone to forward to your Google Voice number. Setup Google Voice so that all unknown callers (this isn't just "Unknown" or "Blocked" numbers -- anybody that's not in your address book with Google will be required to ID) are required to identify themselves. Optionally, set up Google Voice to forward calls to your cell phone. When callers don't identify themselves, as many creditors refuse to do, the phone won't even ring. If they do ID themselves, your cell phone will ring and you'll be given the option to "answer," "send to voicemail & listen in," or my personal favorite, "answer and record." It has completely stopped the collections calls for me! END QUOTE

Where did you find that they don't report to the Big 3? So, Sev was misleading us, eh?

I heard on that am channel, Dave Ramsey say that they can't charge those upfront fees because since the law changed, they have to do (a certain service in some manner) for you first...(if I remember it correctly, something like that). I think I've heard that a lot of these companies are going to go away now because of this new law. Many = Scams.

Actually, one consultation said that I could file Nov and another said the same even saying that Dec 1st would be okay...but that was roughly with the figures I gave them and they did say that I'd be falling into Chapter 7. (Just trying to push the prior months back a tad.) I don't know about the credit counseling you're talking about. I haven't looked up the prices for that and seems like you're saying that the creditors would 'see' that I've taken the course (how long those take, I don't know), ... what's the main point of going through that class? Is it just show that it looks better to the creditors to see 'early on or at the point of 341' that I was advised to go the BK route. Is that worth the cost of the class? If it's looking promising that I can file, then I want to go ahead and do the Chapter 7. I've just filtered my thoughts to consider hiring an atty to now considering using a Court Document Service. I'd rather use the money to pay them, $474 (excluding my $25 X 2 for the online cert). I am going to go to the library to print out the forms (faster printing than at home) for Chapter 7 just so that I can see what it entails. I think that I'd rather pay them so that I know that I did complete these adequately, and most importantly, save me the stress of the means test, etc. that I've been reading a lot of comments about and learning that I think it could stressful and time-consuming and better for me to use the Court Document Service. They're not attorneys but I think with a good rapor with them, they'll keep one from messing up vs doing this myself and messing up. @WhoCares1000, like you said, it can be around 90 days or so. Below is a quote from a thread in the Collections Forum titled Crap One Collection letter only 90 days past due, authored by GeorgiaAutoGuy: It appears here that he's received a letter @ 90 day period. Has anybody else reading this received anything at 90 day+, ? Now I feel a little scared! (lol)

I can't answer your question but, I'm wondering, I thought that things normally didn't happen until after about 180 days with credit cards. I was under that impression.

Also, I don't think that I want to talk with them anyway. They record and could use something I say (intended or not intended to say) to play the recording in court is what I hear. But I thought I could say that I'd been looking for work and as soon as I find work I'd hope to pay...but what would they say to that?

Also, our management here changed and there were several (trustworthy) ladies that were placing our mail into our slots and I really didn't like them seeing all my mail. (And I didn't want to see it daily, either! lol) And I'd had a mailing service for bills, etc. for about six years until they closed. A lot of companies know that a person has a physcial address and uses another one for their mail.

I don't know anything about that subject of CRA but you can open a box which has an actual street address at a local mailing service office. It, to me, is better than USPS box or UPS store because USPS can't check your mail for you when you call, and UPS won't send out packages from DSL or Fedex (but I 'think' they'll receive them); the neighborhood mailing centers will mail your mail to you if you're out-of-state, receive faxes for you, etc. So back to your question, could you use one of these mail centers? I changed my address before I quit paying on my credit cards just so that the office where I live that receives my mail doesn't see an avalanche of mail from these credit card companies after I quit paying the cards. And it's an actual street address and the owner said I don't have to use the box number because he knows the name of the box to put it in.

If you close an account, I've heard that you make certain that they report it as "Closed at customer's request" so that it doesn't look bad on you.

Thanks for your responses. On my secondary phone is where most of the calls come from since that is the number I'd changed my contact number the acct(s) online before I missed the payments. I'm not worried, have no reason to be, that I changed the cell phone number and my address. (My previous mailing service closed a few months ago and I'd had mail sent to home address, the office lobby is an open area and unsecure until they will receive the official USPS boxes, so I changed the address to another mail service.) I'm not worried about this and am quite sure they'll not question this but I have answers for that anyway. The objective was, since I've heard calls will continually come, to have them go to a phone I wasn't normally using. Secondary was only for when the primary cell didn't get a signal. I don't know if I can use a different ringtone for these numbers that have appeared on the missed call list. (The only bad thing about not answering is that I have to depend on voice mail if it's a call from a work contact or the like since I don't answer any calls on that phone that I don't recognize.) There are a couple calls coming to my primary cell but I don't know if I might've missed changing a couple of the acct contact numbers but I don't think I missed any. (I think they might still keep record of the primary number somewhere in their system.) Still yet, I've not answered the phone but one time. A few weeks ago I just kept replying that I couldn't hear the caller and hung up. They're automated and there'd only been a couple of real callers leaving a voice mail of which I didn't return. ** My first payment(s) were missed around the 21st of Sept and so that put's me at October 21st of being 30 days late, right? That's how it goes? Maybe this should go to another forum, but if I don't contact them, it's the credit bureau after 30 days, then what is it after 60 and 90 days that they do? I'd been told in a couple of consulatations that they're backlogged and it could be much later than 90 days before I'd receive a court notice or whatever (I'm now just learning all this.) I'd heard elsewhere that a person told them some exuses to keep them from doing anything drastic right away. Can that be true? I also heard that I can contact them and give them an exuse and say that I hope to find work and hope to pay but to 'not' committ to an amt or date, keyword, don't committ or they can somehow hold you to it but that might be other than a credit card company that were referring to about not verbally committing.