As I mentioned in my earlier post, I am currently going through the process of foreclosure with several properties including my house.
Once you decide that you just can’t pay the mortgage anymore and you miss that first payment AND you know that you won’t be able to catch up with the overdue payment as well as the current payment, you start to rationalize why you shouldn’t pay anything else (like you credit card payment, car payments, etc…)
For the past 7 months, I get no less than 20 calls from lenders and collection agencies. My parents, whose numbers are also on standard loan documents, screen all of their phone calls now because my lenders call them like crazy looking for me.
When I first missed the payments, I called the lenders and asked what they could do. I wanted to make partial payments and catch up when in a couple of months, without it showing as a “30 day late” on my credit report. They said that if I make partial payments, they’ll hold it until I send the rest of the money that equals the total amount, then apply it as a full payment.
Bottom line, partial payments equal “late payments” on your credit report. I also got so late on my car payments that I was locking my car in our one-car garage and would only take out the car to go to the grocery store, church, and a few doctors appointments.
We’ve done a whole heckuvalot of walking in the past few months, that’s for sure. The collection companies started calling me as early as 5 a.m. Perhaps because I never answer their calls in the first place and I never return their messages.
Some even leave messages that are vague like “Hi, Mr. X, This is Aaron at the office. I need you to call me back as soon as possible at 800-blah-blah.”
Forget it. My credit is royally screwed, I am jobless (currently looking for work), got a baby on the way, and I’m so broke that I can’t even pay attention. So why bother calling them back?
I am this close to changing my number, but I am late on my phone bill too and I know that I won’t get approved at a new cell phone provider, so there goes that idea.
For now, I must live with my daily rounds of collection companies calling throughout the day.
Thank God for the “vibration” feature on my cell phone!
