We Want Our Money!

The phonecalls started today.

Starting at just after 8:00 this morning both Capital One and Chase called. Both called almost every hour.

I finally was in a position to pick up one of the calls.

Things I noticed:

Chase was exceptionally polite. The guy expressed understanding and tried to get me to talk more about my situation. He also tried to get me to commit to paying the overdue amount by a specific date. He was interested in how much I thought I might be able to pay, even if it was only a small amount. He said he sympathized with my situation. He also was incredibly hard to get off the phone with, and I eventually had to hang up on him.

I've heard that collection calls are generally polite and continue to get more aggressive as time goes on.

I've also heard that they try to get as much information as possible so that they can use it to try and collect on the account.

Every time I pay a bill, even if it's only $5, it resets that "clock". If I paid nothing for the next seven years it would no longer be on my credit card and I wouldn't have to repay it. Any payment at all, no matter how small, resets that clock.


It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. It took Chase 8 days to finally start calling me. I felt like I wanted to be a nice person and be polite. I didn't want to be a bitch. I also didn't want to tell him I was filing bankruptcy on this call. Why not? Because I wanted to see how the phone call would go if he thought he had a hope of recovering some money.

Capital One left a message this morning. "This is _______ and I have some information about an exciting opportunity available for you from Capital One. Please call me ASAP at _______." They called a few more times but I was at a wedding and missed all of them. I'm going to tell them the same thing.

Still no Bank of America calls. I'm sure that will change soon.