What to do about those creditor calls and other things I have learned from people who have filed consumer proposals with me in London.

While preparing myself for the meeting I found it interesting to note that the creditor had filed a proof of claim in the proposal (the document required to be filed by the creditors so they can receive payments out of either a bankruptcy or a proposal) and indicated they were voting against the proposal as filed. Our office had contacted the debtor and indicated his proposal was not accepted by the majority of creditors and there had been no alternate terms suggested. The debtor suggested an amount he was willing to pay and our offices contacted the creditor with success in that the creditor accepted his alternate terms.

Where it gets even more interesting is that when the debtor attended my office to sign the amendment he indicated that he had brought along the loan papers for that creditor but that the amount was being put in the proposal. I reviewed the documents and discovered that the loan papers were for a new loan that the debtor had signed after the date of the proposal. He was very shocked when I advised that now he was required to pay that loan as it was not included in the proposal and that the amount that he had negotiated was also increased so he was now paying almost double what he expected to pay in total.

When I asked him why he signed a new loan with the creditor he advised me that the creditor had called him repeatedly and advised he needed to take care of the debt right away. I then asked why he would sign something when I had asked him to do three things when he signed the proposal:

• Open a new bank account with a financial institution who he did not owe money to so they could not take money out of his account

• Refer any creditors who called after the date of the proposal to our firm so we could handle the calls for him and so he did not have to talk to them
• Not to take on any more debt because any new debt he obtained after the date of the proposal would not be covered in the propos

He said he panicked when the creditor told him he had to look after the debt right away.

If this person could be so stressed by what a creditor said after he had protection, the amount of stress phone calls from creditors put on people before they are protected under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act must be immense.

If you are feeling that stress from creditors calling you, contact us today at 310-PLAN to book a free consultation appointment. We can help you choose the right option to take care of those phone calls and of course the debts.

al.