What happen to all your bills?

[meetsv]

Good Morning,

We are about to file in March, we have been getting ready by minimizing where we spend money and on what we spend money. But we been trying to figure out what happen with all your bills such as cell phone, satelite tv and the likes that you have a contract with, do they get cancel when you file?

Thanks everybody

[dmc-2008]

Nothing happened so far with mine. I fuled in Oct. its neen business as usual. Knock wood

[pamkev]

Same with us business as usual with our cable cell phone etc and we filed in Aug

[zeezee]

I wouldn't minimize what you spend money on because in your 6 month look back that will be what your budget is based on (if it doesn't exceed allowable amounts). Just don't use your credit cards.

[angel7821]

I filed almost 3 years ago and my bills show up as usual.

[ksgirl38]

Take some advice, go into your online account and print out all your cell phone bills. They'll end up moving you to a new account number after filing with no notice and you'll lose access to the old account. I needed copies of my previous bills for a separate court case and it was a nightmare trying to get them from Verizon. This is pretty much standard for anything you signed a contract on. Utility bills and things of that nature you shouldn't see any changes on.

[clunk]

Take some advice, go into your online account and print out all your cell phone bills. They'll end up moving you to a new account number after filing with no notice and you'll lose access to the old account. I needed copies of my previous bills for a separate court case and it was a nightmare trying to get them from Verizon. This is pretty much standard for anything you signed a contract on. Utility bills and things of that nature you shouldn't see any changes on.

I recently closed on my 7 and my account access was never disrupted. Also my account number never changed and my access was never limited. Maybe the13 has a different effect than my 7 did on me. Just thought I should throw in my 4 cents.

[katztoo]

That don't cancel you but I believe you can get out of a (phone, cable ect) contract through chapter 13. We upgraded plans and got new phones with Verizon during our plan. Also if you have children going to college they qualify for additional aid because you can't take out parent loans. We had to get a letter each year for financial aid saying that we can not take on debt and our son got aid as an "independent" student.

[lillymarlene]

Take some advice, go into your online account and print out all your cell phone bills. They'll end up moving you to a new account number after filing with no notice and you'll lose access to the old account. I needed copies of my previous bills for a separate court case and it was a nightmare trying to get them from Verizon. This is pretty much standard for anything you signed a contract on. Utility bills and things of that nature you shouldn't see any changes on.

With me my utility bills, Gas Co., Electric changed my account numbers even though they were current. I was unable to pay my cell phone, and they closed my account. With Verizon, my landline, nothing changed.

[AngelinaCat]

Nothing happened with our electric bill after we filed, we had the problems BEFORE we filed. But that is another story.

With the land-line telephone, we were with BellSouth. Everything was good there. With BellSouth, we had unlimited free long-distance w/o a charge. Somewhere in the midst of our CH7BK, AT&T took over BellSouth and started racking up long distance charges. We had no knowledge about this--I suppose because of the Automatic Stay. However, once we were discharged, we started getting dunning notices from AT&T for $536.00.

We refused to pay since the switcheroo happened while we were in BK. With each and every dunning letter from each JDB the debt had been sold to, we sent copies of our Discharge Notice and a Cease and Desist letter to AT&T, with CCs to our Trustee and Judge. So far, a little more than a year after the last letter received, we are okay.

We filed CH7 at the end of 2007 and were discharged in 2008.

[ksgirl38]

I recently closed on my 7 and my account access was never disrupted. Also my account number never changed and my access was never limited. Maybe the13 has a different effect than my 7 did on me. Just thought I should throw in my 4 cents.

Possibly. Verizon changed mine about a month after filing.

[LadyInTheRed]

Take some advice, go into your online account and print out all your cell phone bills. They'll end up moving you to a new account number after filing with no notice and you'll lose access to the old account. I needed copies of my previous bills for a separate court case and it was a nightmare trying to get them from Verizon. This is pretty much standard for anything you signed a contract on. Utility bills and things of that nature you shouldn't see any changes on.

I recently closed on my 7 and my account access was never disrupted. Also my account number never changed and my access was never limited. Maybe the13 has a different effect than my 7 did on me. Just thought I should throw in my 4 cents.

Possibly. Verizon changed mine about a month after filing.

Filing Chap 13 did not have any effect on my Verizon account. I still have the same account number and online access was never interrupted. The same is true for all of my utilities.

ksgirl38, did you owe Verizon money at the time you filed? Were they listed on your petition?

Regardless of our varying experiences, it is good advice to print or save images of all of your bills before filing BK. You may never need them. But it's good to have them easily available just in case.

[ksgirl38]

Filing Chap 13 did not have any effect on my Verizon account. I still have the same account number and online access was never interrupted. The same is true for all of my utilities.

ksgirl38, did you owe Verizon money at the time you filed? Where they listed on your petition?

Regardless of our varying experiences, it is good advice to print or save images of all of your bills before filing BK. You may never need them. But it's good to have them easily available just in case.

I think Verizon was listed on the petition since it was a contract. I had actually paid ahead so I was about two months ahead at the time of filing.

[kjrmom911]

That don't cancel you but I believe you can get out of a (phone, cable ect) contract through chapter 13. We upgraded plans and got new phones with Verizon during our plan. Also if you have children going to college they qualify for additional aid because you can't take out parent loans. We had to get a letter each year for financial aid saying that we can not take on debt and our son got aid as an "independent" student.

I'm curious as to where you got a letter. I have a college student also and he could benefit from some aid as in independent student. We make too much money on paper, but since we are in a chapter 13, we don't have any extra at the end of the month.

[katztoo]

I'm curious as to where you got a letter. I have a college student also and he could benefit from some aid as in independent student. We make too much money on paper, but since we are in a chapter 13, we don't have any extra at the end of the month.

We call financial aid every year after they send us/him a letter saying what he is eligible for. We told them we were in chapter 13 and can not take on additional debt. They told us to have our attorney prove that and we call him and they would fax them a simple letter stating that we were in chapter 13 and can not take on debt.
When you go on the FASA web site it tell you that children of those in BK can be considered independent. I printed that and had it on hand in case we got someone in financial aide that wasn't aware of it(which we did one year). After bringing that to their attention we got additional aid for him.